CONWAY, Ark — A Central Arkansas man with a history of stalking women back behind bars.
Jeffrey Hergert, 43, was arrested last week after Larissa Sherman, 19, told police he had been stalking and harassing her.
Sherman said she was out jogging on a Conway bridge when she first ran into Hergert.
She said Hergert drove up beside her.
“It freaked me out a little bit,” said Sherman.
She said to Hergert she didn’t want to talk and kept jogging. That’s when she says he turned around and stopped in front of her.
“It looked like he was trying to get out of his and was trying to find something,” said Sherman.
The teen ran down a hill.
“I was scared all of a sudden,” said Sherman.
She hid in the woods, praying her stalker was not following her.
“I didn’t know what he was going to do,” said Sherman. “I could tell from just looking at him, he was a big man and I’m a small girl.”
She ran home. A few days later, Sherman was out eating with friends when she noticed a man at the bar.
“He stopped, put his shoulder next to mine and bent down in my face,” said Sherman.
He asked her questions.
“About where I worked and I did around town,” said Sherman.
Her friend’s mother eventually ran him off and Sherman said she noticed something familiar about him once he hopped in his car.
“I had a panic attack in the lobby area and said ‘That’s the man … That’s the man I’ve been seeing,'” said Sherman.
She filed a police report that night and posted her encounter on Facebook the next day.
“I just wanted everyone to be safe,” said Sherman.
Her post was shared more than 3-thousand times. Sherman’s shared information helped police catch up to Hergert in Atkins, nearly 45-minutes away.
“It was good to know that my post lead to something good,” said Sherman.
Court records show Hergert has a criminal history in eight states, with previous stalking charges out of Nevada, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
“I think it’s a red flag definitely. Obviously something needs to be done,” said Sherman. “This is a dangerous man and he proves again to be dangerous.”
Hergert is in jail on a $25,000 bond. He goes to court on March 12 at 9 a.m.
