Everyone knows that you shouldn’t post about future vacation plans on social media. It’s good advice that most of us have heard before and that is because it makes perfect sense. Announcing to the world that you are going to be away from your house for a while is practically an open invitation for criminals to come break in.
Social media posts aren’t the only risky behavior that travelers partake in though. How about taking an Uber to the airport?
It’s something that most people wouldn’t think twice about, but it turns out, it’s an action that can potentially be pretty dangerous as well…. at least according to one recent news story.
After a San Mateo, California Uber driver dropped a family off at the airport, he immediately drove back to their residence where he first picked them up to rob their empty house.
It would be an easy burglary, Jackie Gordon Wilson thought. However, what he didn’t plan on was the house having a security system.
As he approached the door, his unscrupulous attempt to enter the Uber customer’s house set off loud security alarms.
This caused Wilson to flee the scene, however, not before attempting to break into another house in the same area.
Wilson quickly changed his focus to a nearby Airbnb property. While this time, he managed to get in an out without setting off alarms, he didn’t realize there were security cameras on the outside of the residence filming the whole burglary.
Thanks to the security camera footage and quick investigative work by the San Mateo Police Department, the former Uber driver will now be doing hard time behind bars.
The Uber customers who had almost become victims themselves were able to verify that it was indeed Wilson in the video breaking into the other nearby home.
Although, unfortunately, for the couple whose home was broken into, the damage had already been done.
“He tore apart the whole house, tossed everything. Every piece of furniture moved. He opened my safe,” the victim told CBS News.
“Family heirlooms that I’m really, really hoping I can get back… they’re from my grandmother and go back all the way to the Holocaust. So, if that’s lost… to him, that was just something for him to just pawn off. To me, that was a memory of my grandmother.”
We can only hope that the police will be able to recover the stolen items, however, the couple feels that their valuable family heirlooms are already long gone.
Once something is pawned off on the street, the odds of getting it back undamaged are very low.
Both homeowners from the video urged people to be very cautious about using ridesharing services to get to the airport.
They hope their experience is enough to discourage other people in the future from putting themselves at risk like they did.
While most people would never consider using Uber or any other ridesharing service as being a risk factor for break-ins, this story proves that you should never underestimate the ingenuity of criminals.
Although Uber and Lyft do their best to screen all potential drivers and avoid problems like this from occurring, at the end of the day, you never really know who that person behind the wheel is and what their intentions are.
Bad people are always coming up with all sorts of creative ways to find their next targets.
Check out the video below to watch the whole news story of the Uber driver break-in.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
