HOUSTON – A four-month Houston Police Department investigation of a 71-year-old man’s violent robbery in the Bellaire area has led to charges being filed against a serial robbery suspect, according to court records.
Carlos Rusi was arrested Tuesday for aggravated robbery of a person over 65 years old, records show.
The attack happened outside a coin shop in July after the victim left a Capitol One bank location.
Evidence that included cameras used by West University Place Police and the suspect’s mother’s rental car records led to his latest charge, according to court records.
But Rusi is no stranger to being the subject of crime reports. In 2017, KPRC 2 News reported on police needing help finding him as a gang member and a bank jugging suspect.
At the time, he had more than 30 arrests.
2017 REPORT: Police ask for help locating ‘bank jugging’ suspects
Years before that, KPRC 2 News reported on Rusi’s 2014 arrest, when police said he was connected to more than a dozen car break-ins and robberies across Harris County, including incidents of bank juggings.
2014 REPORT: HPD arrests crime ring suspects
He has been arrested many more times since then, a review of records showed.
The latest incident
A 71-year-old man left a Capitol One bank at Westpark Drive and Buffalo Speedway the morning of July 12.
When the victim arrived at a coin shop on Beechnut Street, Rusi allegedly approached him, demanded his phone, and stole the bank envelope from his shirt pocket.
The victim tried to fight back, which is when Rusi got angry and pushed the victim to the ground. He ended up bruised and bleeding, records show.
Rusi left in a gray Volvo, according to records, which investigators later found on surveillance video from West University Place city traffic cameras.
The video showed Rusi’s Volvo following the victim’s SUV on Buffalo Speedway. It also gave detectives a license plate number.
Mom’s rental records reveal suspect
Investigators ran the license plate information on the Volvo and found the vehicle was registered to a car rental company.
The rental agreement linked back to Rusi’s mother and revealed that the vehicle was rented before the robbery then returned after, records show.
Investigators found previous reports where Rusi’s mother rented vehicles for her son, who would then use the vehicles to engage in criminal activity.
New allegations out of Pearland
According to Pearland Police, Rusi also allegedly broke into a vehicle in a Walmart parking lot at 1710 Broadway in August and stole $100 cash.
The victim had been followed from a bank in the 2800 block of Broadway, a police spokesperson told KPRC 2 News on Wednesday. He’s been wanted since earlier this month, and police placed a hold on Rusi on Tuesday when he was booked into the Harris County Jail on the elderly man’s robbery charge.
PPD is working to determine if he’s responsible for any unsolved juggings in the Pearland area.
Suspect’s extensive criminal history
Around the time Rusi allegedly robbed the elderly man outside the Bellaire-area coin shop in July, records show Katy Police were investigating him for similar jugging incidents.
Court records show on July 11, one day before the elderly man was robbed, a victim was followed from a Bank of America in Fort Bend County and eventually robbed at gunpoint.
As officers did surveillance on the suspect vehicle as part of that investigation, the vehicle returned to the same Bank of America on July 18, then followed other victims for 28 miles.
Those victims stopped at a gas station when Rusi allegedly broke into their vehicle and stole the woman’s purse with $5,200 inside, which the victims had withdrawn at the bank just prior to the robbery.
Officers stopped him nearby and recovered the purse with the money inside.
Charged with theft in Harris County, records show Rusi was released on a $75,000 bond on July 21.
Rusi’s release on bond came while he was on probation, according to records.
In January of 2024, Rusi got five years of probation for robbery and evading arrest charges in Harris County.
Records show he got charged with additional crimes while on probation, including the July 2025 Katy Police case and again in Sept. 2025 when he was arrested in Montgomery County for jugging shortly after the new law took effect.
His Montgomery County jugging case is pending, and records show Rusi was released from jail on a $25,000 bond.
Rusi was taken back to jail in mid-October for allegedly testing positive for drugs while on the Montgomery County bond, then released again on Nov. 4.
During his time on probation, records show in Sept. 2025 he also got convicted of misdemeanors for falsifying a drug test and displaying a fake handicap placard.
In 2018, 2015, 2011, 2008, 2006, and 2005, records show Rusi has received separate prison sentences for convictions on felony cases of engaging in organized criminal activity, robbery, and drug-related crimes. In total, Rusi has 26 mugshots dating back to 2006, according to DPS records.
Harris County prosecutors have filed a motion to hold Rusi without bond on his new charge for the elderly man’s robbery.
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