Uber driver carjacked in Marin County, deputies arrest SoCal couple

SAULSALITO, Calif. - An Uber driver said she was carjacked on Tuesday by a man she had just picked up. Moments earlier, she said his female companion launched an unprovoked attack on the driver, pulling her hair and ears. 

And a bartender spoke to KTVU about serving the couple moments beforehand.

"I was flabbergasted," bartender Lyon Omohundro said, recalling them he served the pair at the No Name Bar, a historic local saloon on Bridgeway Street in downtown Sausalito. 

The No Name is where the couple began their wild ride, which ended with them arrested. Omohundro remembers serving them two rounds Monday night, but asking them to leave before the live music ended at midnight. 

They had become drunk and disruptive, he said. "They were dancing and had a little incident with the band, they lost their balance and fell" said Omohundro, "and then another incident, knocked over a table full of drinks."   

Into an Uber they went.

But within a few hours, they were riding in police patrol cars.

The Marin County Sheriff's Facebook page posted photos of each suspect in handcuffs, being taken into custody: Tyson Rocco Pelanconi, 53, of Burbank and Brenda Carlier, 44, of Van Nuys.  

The two were visiting the Bay Area over the Labor Day holiday, and celebrating Carlier's birthday.

The Uber driver who picked them up at the No Name Bar told Investigators she had no inkling of what would happen. 

"They were only aggressive when the car started driving to San Francisco," said Marin County Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Brovelli, "and for some reason, they started assaulting the driver."  

The victim told authorities she didn't even make it to Highway 101 before she was under attack. 

"She was being assaulted and getting her hair and ears pulled," described Sgt. Brovelli, "so she pulled over, stopped the car, got out and ran away with only her purse." 
Pelinconi, a real estate agent at a Beverly Hills agency, allegedly got into the drivers seat and took off in the victim's vehicle.   

In short order, police tracked the couple to their original Uber destination: the W Hotel on 3rd Street in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. 

Surveillance video shows them arriving and leaving the stolen car on the street, where SFPD officers spotted it. 

One of the suspects had left identification in the car which gave police a name to run against the hotel reservation records. 

The next stop was the couple's room.  

"Officers went and knocked on the door and the two suspects answered, and they were detained," said Brovelli. 

The Uber driver was able to identify the couple on the spot as the two who assaulted her and stole her vehicle. 

"I can't imagine what she went through," said Omohundro, who was shocked not only by the carjacking, but the fact that patrons he recognized as inebriated, navigated their way seven miles from Sausalito to SOMA. 

He is sympathetic to the Uber driver.  

"It's Labor Day, you're working, it's not a company car, a taxi, it's her personal property," said Omohundro. 

The suspects posted bail of $150,000 each, on charges of robbery and carjacking.  

Pelinconi picked up his cell phone when KTVU called, but asked about what happened, responded, "those are false charges" and hung up.