Homeowners and realtors said Tuesday they recognize the woman in a Channel 6 News story that aired Monday, who allegedly takes prescription medication while touring open houses.

She's apparently going to open houses under the premise of a buyer. She asks the realtor or homeowner to look after her kids and while they are distracted, she steals medications from the house.

It happened to the Ruma family, who were in the process of selling their home on their own. "We thought we had everything of value or anything taken out of the house, so I didn't think there was anything to worry about," said Sara Ruma.

Recently, a woman posing as a potential buyer proved the Rumas were wrong. "She just kind of ran around the house really quickly and she was like, oh, I may be back tomorrow and she came back the next day, which in my mind was promising, like she's interested in the house."

The woman's interest was in Sara's prescription medication. "She left other prescriptions alone for allergies and things like that and went straight for the painkillers. I was really mad when I found the empty pill bottles. It made me mad."

Embarrassed and angry, Ruma told a friend and got a shocking response. "I said this is so weird and she called me back and said the same thing happened to her."

According to Sara and her friends, the woman is 5-foot-5 with brown hair and pulls up in a white SUV with children inside. She comes up to the door and asks the homeowner to keep an eye on the children while she takes a quick tour of the home, unescorted.

After the story aired, several individuals contacted WOWT saying they recognized her method of operation.

Jennifer Neid feels she escaped becoming a victim. "I ended up telling my mom about it this morning and she said, 'oh, I saw this story on it last night. Somebody is using this as a ruse to break into people's houses and taking prescription drugs. You might want to be careful.'"

Neid has been trying to sell her home for a few months. "We've recently listed with a realtor so anything that's been happening has been going through her, so for somebody to call me directly was really odd."

She says she got a call from a woman wanting to see her house. She originally agreed, but something didn't sit right and she instead wrote a note on her door to cancel. After seeing Monday's story online, curiosity got the better of Jennifer.

Instead of showing her house, she decided to drive up the block and watch who came by. She couldn't believe what she saw. "I was actually on the phone with my mom at that time and I was like, oh my gosh, it's her. It's the person that they were talking about, this was totally a scam."

At CBS Home Real Estate, broker Bill Black says colleagues have reported similar sightings. "This gal has been seen at probably, easily, a half-dozen different open houses."

He says thanks to our story, brokers have now received the word. "Your story is what started it, what precipitated it, but as soon as it hit the airwaves, then immediately last night right after the news, e-mails started coming back and forth between agents saying hey, has anyone else experienced this?"

Jennifer is relieved she didn't experience it. "If I wouldn't have read the story I would have just let somebody in and felt bad that their kids were in the back seat and gone out to watch them. I totally would have been trusting and would have fallen for the scam."

The scam doesn't surprise Blane Rump, a real estate agent with Premier One Real Estate.

"The best way to protect yourself before you show the home to anybody is to ask to see and keep a copy of a pre-approval letter from a bank. There you have their name, their phone number and if you need to get ahold of them you certainly can."

The lesson for everyone, says Sara, is to leave selling your home to the professionals. "We're in the process of talking to some realtors, we're really hestitant to do another open house."

Sara has filed a police report and believes the woman is specifically targeting people who are selling their home without an agent. At least three of her friends have been hit by the same woman since last summer.