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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The victim’s daughter said her 88-year-old mother was in the hospital at the time.<\/p>\n
“We kept watching it because we were in shock,” the daughter, who asked not to be identified, said of the video.<\/p>\n
In all, she told police she found 16 hydrocodone tablets and 42 tramadol tablets missing from her mom’s medicine drawer.<\/p>\n
Seiter was charged with burglary but has since bonded out of jail.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
“He looked like someone who has been looking over his shoulder his entire life,” the victim’s daughter said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, home healthcare worker Walter Portillo pleaded guilty to stealing jewelry and silver from an elderly Bellaire couple.<\/p>\n
Eyewitness News searched Texas Medical Board records but couldn’t find anyone licensed by that name.<\/p>\n
AARP Texas recommends hiring from a licensed agency. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission requires them to do pre-employment background checks.<\/p>\n
Family members can also go a step further.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
It could have spared a Friendswood woman a lot of sleepless nights.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
AARP encourages victims of fraud to call their hotline at 877-908-3360. April is Fraud Awareness Month.<\/p>\n
For news updates, follow Luke Jones on Facebook<\/a>, X<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n