Home health aide caught snooping around Fayette County home charged with theft
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A home health aide caught on camera snooping instead of looking after a hospice patient, is now facing charges.
A Fayette County family had been waiting for answers after their home health aide was caught on camera snooping through their things.
The aide, later identified as Amber Hibbard, is charged with theft by unlawful taking.
She was under investigation by her employer Caring Mission Home Care after videos showed her with a flashlight apparently going through the family's things while she was supposed to be caring for her hospice patient.
"It went on for hours," said Terry Christopher, the patient's daughter. "She would pace around the kitchen looking at different things in my home. And then she started going through my cabinets, my drawers."
Christopher said her father, Roger Porter, was approved by the VA for 40 hours a week of home health care after going to hospice. That is when the family hired the home health aide, who started on July 29, to care for her father overnight.
"When she got here initially, I told her I have a camera," Christopher said. "They record all the time. There's one right here in the kitchen, which I showed her, and then I showed her the one in his room also."
While Christopher and Porter were sleeping, she said her cameras caught the aide going through their things on her first night on the job.
"In the video, you can hear a knock something over and then she looks to see if she woke him up. And she did not. So, she continued to search," Christopher said.
The family said they feel violated and believe Hibbard should no longer have a job in home health.
"I don't want anyone else to have to go through this," Christopher said. "I don't want anyone to have to feel violated like I feel."
When confronted by police, Hibbard claimed she was looking for headache medicine.
Hibbard is scheduled for court in October.