VIDEO: Fake rideshare driver follows passenger into home, robs her
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. -- Police in Maryland are searching for a man who allegedly posed as a rideshare driver and robbed a woman after following her inside her home.
The victim, who asked not to be identified, said she thought she requested the ride through an app. But when she got into the car, he didn't have her information on his phone.
"A car pulls up and I get into a car," she said. "He said, 'Your address is not registering,' which should have been alarm bell No. 1."
When they arrived at her building, she said he demanded payment for the ride. That's when she realized something was wrong.
RIDESHARE SAFETY: Watch this before your next Uber, Lyft ride
Surveillance video shows the man followed her inside the building and into the elevator, where he tried to yank her purse off her arm.
"My gut instinct told me to just run out of the elevator and try to open the door to my unit," she said. "I was almost able to close the door shut, but he managed to push himself through the door."
Investigators said the suspect stole two Rolex watches from her apartment, valued to be around $10,000 each. He also got away with her purse. There were credit cards inside, which he allegedly used later that day.
Police asked the public to take proper precautions when using rideshare services to get home safely.
"The app will tell you the name of the driver. It'll tell you the make and model of the vehicle that's coming to get you and it'll also tell you the tag number," said Rick Goodale, public information officer for the Montgomery County Police Department.
This incident occurred one day after a University of South Carolina student was killed after she got into a vehicle she thought was her Uber. Nathaniel Rowland, 24, was charged in Samantha Josephson's murder and kidnapping.
Parents of slain SC student: Ask driver 'What's my name?'
Josephson's parents are now on a mission to remind people of how they can use rideshare services safely.
"I think it's just become such a natural, or a new phenomenon, using Uber, but we trust people, and you can't. You have to change the way the laws are to make it safer. Because that's our nature, we automatically assume we're safe, and we put our loved ones in an Uber or a Lyft," said Marci Josephson, Samantha's mother.
"We're all teaching our kids not get into cars with strangers, and what do we do? We get in cars with strangers," said Seymour Josephson, Samantha's father.
"It has to be automatic, like putting on a seatbelt. You have to ask, 'What's my name?' because it can be anyone," Marci Josephson said.
