A home health aide accused of stealing a patient’s debit card had been previously investigated, police said, following accusations she stole prescription medications from patients at personal care homes in Penn Township and Venango County.

Shayna Whitehead, 30, of Summit Township, was charged July 26 with theft, receiving stolen property and accessing a device used to obtain or attain property or services.

Police said Whitehead admitted stealing a debit card from a patient’s wallet at his home in Penn Township and using it on 10 occasions. The loss totaled approximately $1,694 and includes seven instances of ATM transactions at Mars Bank, 600 Pittsburgh Road, police said.

According to charging documents, Whitehead had been employed as a home health aide for a Penn Township man while his wife was out of town. His wife reported a theft from the couple’s joint bank account in May.

Officials charged Whitehead after a search warrant allowed them to secure images of her license plates and face from the Mars Bank ATM that were captured on the dates and times of the unauthorized transactions.

Whitehead already is facing other charges, police said. In 2022, she was accused of stealing prescription medications from a patient at Shelborne Personal Care Home, where she worked as a medical technician, as well as altering records related to the drugs. According to police, she was investigated a second time at Monarch Home Health Care in Franklin, Venango County, after a patient couldn’t find a bottle of oxycodone that was going to be refilled.