LASANO – For years, a Rio Grande Valley elderly couple have gone without water in their home.

Their daughter-in-law, Eva Ortega, remembers seeing them suffer when she first met them. After realizing the couple were paying neighbors for buckets of water, she decided to help.

Ortega was told by East Rio Hondo Water Supply Corporation it would be $3,000 to install a meter. She offered a $2,000 payment and asked for a plan to pay the rest. The water company didn’t accept.

After Ortega’s husband was incarcerate in Rockport, Texas, the elderly couple moved there to be closer to their son.

In July 2019, the family found out water had finally been connected, but not how they expected. Ortega’s father-in-law was indicted for theft.

ERHWSC claimed he had stolen water from the tap from the time they purchased the property in 1998, including the four year period they lived in Rockport.

Watch the video above for the full story.