[Ads /]
"He came back to that exact house and tried to burglarize it," said Officer Michael Haobsh with San Mateo police.
The passengers were staying at an Airbnb rental. Police say a security alarm scared the driver -- later identified as Jackie Gordon Wilson.
"Torn apart the whole house, tossed everything. Every piece of furniture moved. He opened my safe," said Scott, who lives with his girlfriend, Chana, in the house that was burglarized.
Scott and Shana don't want to share their identities, but they did share surveillance video of the suspect allegedly breaking into their house.
"There are heirlooms that belong to my grandmother, that go back all the way to the Holocaust. For him that was just something to pawn off. To me that was the memory of my grandmother," said Chana.
She said the suspect spent four hours ransacking their house, walking in and out several times with bags filled with their valuables, as seen on their Ring surveillance footage, a doorbell that records video that can be shared online.
[Ads /]
When Scott got home after work, he shared the Ring footage online. The owner of the Airbnb then identified the intruder as Wilson, who was also seen allegedly trying to break into the Airbnb property earlier.
"(The Airbnb owner) had immediately contacted his tenants, who had just left within the hour. (He asked them) 'Do you know this guy?' 'Yeah, that's our Uber driver,'" explains Scott.
Chana and Scott say they were horrified to learn that the suspect may have had a criminal past, which they found out though searching his social media accounts.
"He had openly posted that in 2017, he had been out of jail for six months for robbery. I was shocked!" says Chana.
[Ads /]
They think Uber needs to do more to screen drivers.
"I'm definitely thinking twice about taking ride shares after this. I'm thinking everybody should. I mean, this is a big deal! He used this to facilitate committing a crime!" said Scott.
Police say they used information from the Uber app to track down Wilson, who lives in Rancho Cordova near Sacramento.
The couple is working with police to get their items back.
Uber did not return requests for comment.