FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (KTRK) — A home healthcare worker’s license remains suspended after he was seen stealing pills from an elderly patient in surveillance video shared exclusively with Eyewitness News.
The video shows a man, Friendswood police identify as Stephen Seiter, rummaging through a drawer and taking out a prescription bottle before taking out pills on Nov. 3 at a client’s home.
The victim’s daughter said her 88-year-old mother was in the hospital at the time.
“We kept watching it because we were in shock,” the daughter, who asked not to be identified, said of the video.
In all, she told police she found 16 hydrocodone tablets and 42 tramadol tablets missing from her mom’s medicine drawer.
Seiter was charged with burglary but has since bonded out of jail.
“We look forward to litigating the case in court,” Seiter’s attorney, Jed Silverman, told Eyewitness News in a statement. “It is my opinion that when the facts are presented, Mr. Seiter will be exonerated.”
“He looked like someone who has been looking over his shoulder his entire life,” the victim’s daughter said.
Seiter’s then-employer, Bay Area House Calls, is owned by a company called Privia Health. Privia didn’t respond when asked how they vetted Seiter, who, according to records, had no criminal history in Texas prior to November.
Earlier this year, home healthcare worker Walter Portillo pleaded guilty to stealing jewelry and silver from an elderly Bellaire couple.
Eyewitness News searched Texas Medical Board records but couldn’t find anyone licensed by that name.
AARP Texas recommends hiring from a licensed agency. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission requires them to do pre-employment background checks.
Family members can also go a step further.
“I think it is important to establish that rapport,” said Rosalinda Martinez with AARP. “Kind of do a gut check as well. Get to know the person.”
It could have spared a Friendswood woman a lot of sleepless nights.
“She’s terrified to the point where she is like, ‘I’m selling that house.’ The house that she’s been in for 51 years,” said her daughter.
AARP encourages victims of fraud to call their hotline at 877-908-3360. April is Fraud Awareness Month.
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