Uber driver who took passengers to airport accused of going back and breaking into their homes
A brazen ridesharing driver who was captured on camera trying to burglarize the residence of customers he had just picked up and dropped at the airport an hour earlier has been arrested and charged.
According to a press release by the San Mateo Police Department, deputies arrested 38-year-old Jackie Gordon Wilson in the Sacramento area for a residential burglary he committed in San Mateo the previous day while driving for Uber. He was caught after a Ring surveillance community sharing platform revealed he had previously attempted to burglarize another home of a passenger an hour after dropping them off at the airport.
The press release stated that detectives were first brought to the attention of his crimes after they responded to the 1700 block of Nash Drive at around 5:37 pm on Friday, April 5, on reports of a residential burglary.
On arriving at the scene, they found that a home had been completely ransacked and that multiple items had been stolen. Speaking about the burglary, Scott, who lives in the house with his girlfriend Chana, told CNN, "(He'd) torn apart the whole house, tossed everything. Every piece of furniture moved. He opened my safe."
Chana similarly said the suspect had spent as many as four hours ransacking their home and that he had taken several valuables, including heirlooms her grandmother had saved during the Holocaust.
Scott had Ring video surveillance of the break-in and shared it on a community sharing platform, where he learned from users that the suspect was an Uber driver who had just dropped off some residents at the airport from the 600 block of Rand Street.
The Rand Street Ring security camera showed the suspect had first attempted to burglarize the Rand Street home of the riders just an hour after dropping them to the airport but his plan was thwarted after an alarm sounded. He was then captured burglarizing the Nash Drive home, which was in the same neighborhood and just a few blocks apart from the first residence.
The investigation into the burglary eventually led San Mateo Police detectives to a home in Rancho Cordova, where they found Wilson, wearing the same clothing he had on while lurking around the neighborhood he burglarized the day before.
He was subsequently arrested by the San Mateo Police with the assistance of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office. A search warrant was served at his residence resulted in officers recovering some of the items he had stolen from the Nash drive residence.
Wilson was transported and booked into San Mateo County Jail for the burglary on Nash Drive and the attempted burglary on Rand Street. The investigation is set to continue, however, with detectives now looking into Wilson’s activities to identify any other crimes and recover additional stolen property.
Andrew Hasbun, Uber communications manager, confirmed to CNN that the 38-year-old would no longer work for them. "We removed the driver's access to the app as soon as we were made aware of the allegations and stand ready to assist police in their investigation," he said.