Woman confronts man she says groped her while shopping

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A woman confronted a man she claims grabbed her sexually while she was shopping. Now he's in custody, because she refused to back down.

That woman was in the Big Lots at West Little York and Highway 6 Tuesday when she says a man groped her not once, but twice.

"Belle," who asked that we not reveal her identity for her safety, says it started at the back of the store when she felt something graze her backside. She saw a young man and thought she'd bumped into him.

"He was close enough to where it could happen, so I dismissed and went on to hear him start mumbling to himself," she said. "He made me feel uncomfortable so I started thinking I'm at the back of the store; I should probably get away from this back aisle."

She went towards the front, kept shopping, and a few minutes later she says it happened again.

"I feel a whole hand grazing my back side, a rub and I was kind of shocked and turned to see who this is this time, because I knew from that touch that it wasn't an accident, and it's him again."

Belle told Eyewitness News she went to tell a cashier and the manager what happened. She said as he tried to leave the store, she followed him out with her cell phone camera rolling.

The man can be heard on the video threatening to kill her. The confrontation ended with him taking her cell phone.

Belle called 911 from inside the store. Less than an hour later, working from the description she gave them, deputies arrested Jerry Higgins.

Higgins, 24, is charged with criminal mischief and robbery-bodily injury.

This is Higgins' third time being charged with criminal mischief. He's in Harris County Jail on a $25,000 bond.