From WLWT 5

ELSMERE, Ky. —You can imagine the surprise on Jennifer Maxam’s face when she reviewed her in-home video surveillance system after a recent burglary.

She recognized the suspect in a surprise starring role. She told Elsmere police it was her Uber driver from a few nights earlier.

Police arrested Raymond Southerland, of Burlington, charging him with the Nov. 21 break-in and theft from Maxam’s apartment at a new development called The Overlook.

Two days later, Maxam reported someone had climbed in the window of her ground floor unit and burglarized it.

According to the police report, the intruder came into her apartment at approximately 1:30 a.m. and remained there until approximately 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 21. She stated he took her wedding rings valued at $7,000, Bose noise cancelling headphones valued at $300, and consumed a beer from her refrigerator.

Police said they were able to determine the identity of the driver and the black Nissan Xterra he drove because Southerland had given her a ride home on November 15 through the Uber ride service.

Maxam had called for an Uber ride from Tom’s Papa Dino’s in Florence. A bartender there knows Maxam and informed the owner about what had happened.

With the holiday season underway, calls for cab and Uber ride services are more frequent.

“My concern is the safety of the customer getting home. And then something like this happens and then, them are my concerns on that. I mean, are you sending your customer home in a safe car?” neighbor Mary Crittendon said.

Crittendon considers this a cautionary tale about the risks of simple rides home.

Police spoke with bartenders about Southerland and were told he had returned to the bar, pounding on the door after hours and asking about her.

“We had an undercover cop in here with our closer and he opened the door, he said ‘What do you want?’ He goes ‘I was just looking for somebody.’ He supposedly came in trying to also get her number again,” said Crittendon.

Maxam testified in court about it Monday as Southerland was held on criminal charges that presumably put his Uber driving days in jeopardy.

“Who’s picking you up now?” asked Crittendon rhetorically. “You just don’t know anymore.”

Read more from WLWT 5