A man who drives for Uber in the Bay Area is behind bars after allegedly returning to the home of a passenger he dropped off at the airport in an attempt to burglarize it, officials said Monday.
Jackie Gordon Wilson, 38, of Rancho Cordova, was unsuccessful in robbing the passenger’s home but wound up targeting another residence nearby, San Mateo police said in a news release.
Officers were called about the burglary at the second house, on the 1700 block of Nash Drive, around 5:35 p.m. Thursday. They found the home completely ransacked with several items missing, investigators said.
The break-in was partially captured by a Ring doorbell security camera, and the homeowner uploaded the video to the company’s Neighbors app, police said. The app allows users to share home surveillance video from the company’s devices with others in their community.
The Uber passenger who’d been dropped off at the airport is also on the app — and quickly recognized the man as their driver, who’d been recorded by their Ring device returning to their home on the 600 block of Rand Street, according to detectives.
The residences are about half a mile apart in the Shoreview neighborhood.
The video from Rand Street showed Wilson outside the passenger’s house about an hour after the person was dropped off, but he abandoned attempts to break in after an alarm went off, officials said.
Authorities investigated the claims overnight and identified Wilson as a suspect the following day.
Wilson was arrested at his home in Rancho Cordova, outside Sacramento, around 9 p.m. Friday. He was wearing the same clothes as the suspect on the Shoreview homes’ surveillance cameras, officials said.
Upon serving a search warrant at Wilson’s residence, investigators allegedly uncovered property stolen from the home on Nash Drive.
He was being held on suspicion of burglary and attempted burglary, and detectives are now looking into whether he can be tied to similar crimes in the area.
In an emailed statement, Uber said it removed Wilson’s access to the ride-hailing app as soon as it was made aware of the accusations against him, and the company is cooperating with police.
Lyft said it was looking into whether Wilson was also a registered driver on its platform.
