. good evening. i am gasia mikaelian with a special presentation from the channel 2 newsroom. only on two, ktvu investigations. in this program, we'll present the series of recent special reports that have affected change here in the bay area and n-impact your daily life and we begin with the port of oakland, a '7 billion a year operation and wen uncovered top port officials tried to claim that the spending of hundreds of dollars of public money was legitimate expense. in one case the spending happened at a private room karaoke bar that some people suggest is a front for prostitution. eric rasmussen leads the investigation. >> reporter: for several nights we recorded a parade of scantily clad women, many dropped off all at once in midtown oakland. it's a familiar scene that

neighbors say they have been concerned about for years. >> the first thing i thought there was just too many of them to be waitresses in this place. >> reporter: cafe joliet is where the port of oakland's manager like, dunnigan show his credit card was charged at 1:44 a.m. on his experience report dunnigan wrote, "it was a business meeting with china merchant, a large port operator who was in town for a national symposium. a regular told us, you can get girls here." in an online rough for the same location, a customer said he was shown six women and was asked which one do you want? can you tell us what kind of business is being run here? >> karaoke bar. >> reporter: we found the business' manager john out front. >> reporter:

what about all the girls that we see come in here. >> do you see girls right now? >> reporter: we have seen girls. >> this karaoke we have male and female connection here. >> reporter: you have a love connection here? >> yes. >> reporter: is anyone paying to be with his girls? >> that is what i know. i don't really know. >> reporter: we discovered the receipt from cafe juliet while uncovering our investigation that uncovered $a4500 by port of oakland maritime director james k would. we found lawrence dunnigan was reimbursed for thousands of dollars, public money spent at exclusive hotels overseas. some as kwon, dunnigan made repeat visits to the club, a restaurant and club in china. >> there is a mitch you're of

shock and dismay and we're going to get to the bottom of this. >> reporter: after dodging kutv's questions for week the port sites an ongoing investigation and that is the answer that the port spokesman gave to almost every one of our questions. why would the port approve these expenses? why omaha burse them? >> this is all part of the investigation. we're going to get to the bottom of the mart. >> they are doing this because they think they can get away with it. >> reporter: marvin brown is a professor of business ethics and author of the book "corporate ethics." most people do what they think is right, considering the world that they think they live in. so what these events tell us is that the kind of world that has been created by the people managing the port of oakland. >> reporter: as for lawrence dunnigan, mr.

dunnigan, this is eric rasmussen, we tried to reach him repeatedly and we're still waiting for a response. we're outraged! the media has exposed what we have known all along. >> what we uncovered set off a series of protests by oakland port workers. as you can see workers were furious after our first story and disrupted the very next board meeting. our report put the port's top officials and board on the defensive and launched a series of investigations. within a week of our first story the port commission placed executive director benjamin and maritime director jamkwon james kwon on administrative leave. we discovered it was more than port officials visiting that coorook bar. some members of oakland police department made visits to that same and here is

eric rasmussen again with what oakland police officers are doing on the clock. >> reporter: over four nights we watched the same scene play out at cafe juliet on 14th street in midtown oakland. each night our camera recorded women going into the private room karaoke bar. >> what is going on down there? is this some kind of weird prostitution thing going on? >> reporter: this neighbor and others say the scene we observed has been going on for years, but she told us it's not just the women and mostly male clientele that have her concerned. >> we have seen a police officer kind of go in and out, sometimes at night and sometimes with a police car parked out here for hours. >> reporter: on our first night a marked oakland police cruiser parked right in front of us and we watched sergeant young go inside.

shortly after he left, the women began arriving. the next night young's cruiser was back, but it was another officer who parked and went inside. officer barry ko made two visits, the second lasting 27 minutes. as soon as ko left just before midnight, sergeant young returned. on his third pass of the night, young drove through the parking lot next to cafe juliet, using his spotlight on the cars, just as we saw him do the night before. >> pardon me sergeant, eric with channel 2, a quick question, cafe juliet on 14th street? >> what about it. >> reporter: why are you there night after night? >> because my friend works there. >> reporter: sergeant young spoke to us outside of oakland police headquarters. are you doing this as a favor to your friend? >> no. no. no. i said my friend works there. works there, not owner, not anything else. >> reporter: is that the reason you are giving this what seems to be a lot of your time? >> i only go down there when i

am off and stay there for a length of time. >> reporter: young offered a different explanation when we told him about our video of his visiting the bar in uniform during his shift? >> when i am working i do security checks there. what happens is that -- can we talk off-camera for a second r. he said he couldn't elaborate because of an investigation, but young insists there is nothing illegal happening inside cafe juliet. i had a regular tell me flat out you can get girls here. does that concern you to hear that? >> that is completely untrue. i can't say for a fact, because i don't follow those people home, right? >> reporter: can you tell us what kind of business is being running here? >> karaoke bar. >> reporter: what about the girls that we see come in here? >> do you see any girls right now? >> reporter: we have we showed our video to former alameda county sheriff

charles plummer. he says the oakland police department should be questioning what its officers are doing here. >> i would start an investigation, absolutely, right now. >> plummer with 50 years in law enforcement doesn't believe we stumbled into an ongoing investigation? >> if they were checking on this place it won't be a uniform, but plain clothes people. >> reporter: oakland mayor quan says she expected police chief howard jordan to investigate. >> he will investigate it and i have confidence that if there is any misconduct, that he will dot right thing. >> reporter: so far, chief jordan has not responded to our repeated requests to interview him, officer ko or anyone with the department's command staff. >> oakland police chief howard jordan issued a written response after we aired our story. chief jordan says, "i take these allegations very seriously. and the department opened investigations as soon as the circumstances were brought to my attention.

because these are open investigations, i am limited from what can be discussed." well now to what state called arduous pay a bureaucratic way for taking extra pay for extra risk. debora villone shows us how millions and millions of our tax dollars are being handed out. >> reporter: you get arduous pay? >> no. i believe it's just management. >> reporter: we asked state workers willardous pay. >> you are doing maybe something hazardous or above -- beyond the hours you are supposed to work. >> reporter: brings to mind a bomb squad, extra pay for the risks. or a hazardous materials team, called to emergencies. but why would administrators at state unemployment headquarters reap more than a million dollars in arduous pay? >> there are times when you have emergencies, where i think you can make the case it's warranted. >> reporter:

edd says the emergency was the recession. pushing top staff to put in long, arduous hours, processing a mountain of unemployment claims. is what why managers get paid more, because they work more? >> i don't know what the rules are regarding -- there are different categories. >> they are basically creating their own emergencies by creating a fiscal crisis and then to handle that crisis, they are benefiting from it. >> reporter: critics point to pay records showing supervisors who can't get overtime, tapping arduous pay instead. >> and the fact that they are the ones doing the abuse is shocking to me. they should be representing us. >> reporter: and employment development of agencies boosting managers pay, payouts total almost $5 million over four years during a time most state employees were being forced into unpaid furloughs. >> it has to be evaluated by the management of our department and approved and documented. >> reporter:

arduous work must be on deadline or extremely urgent, an unavoidable and heavy workload that exceeds normal hours. finance department wracked up $1 million in arduous pays preparing annual state budgets. >> it's not uncommon to have late-nights, early mornings and weekends in order to meet those constitutional deadlines. >> why are they getting paid extra dollars for doing their job, when the state is broke? >> reporter: tax watchdogs say the premium was never meant for desk jobs when it began years ago to reimburse cal fire managers. >> when we return, how keeping something too close to your heart can kill you.

barter cancer kills one in five

women, 40,000 of them every year. ktvu health and science editor reviews how young women may put themselves in harm's way. >> reporter: it's convenient say many young women. >> it's probably the most convenient place to put it especially when you go out. you put your money on one breast and the phone in the other. >> it's easy to feel the vibration and someone texts you, you can get the call really fast. >> reporter: maybe they should talk to tiffany france. her mother had misgivings. >> we never took it seriously until after she was diagnosed. >> reporter: tiffany got breast cancer at 21. >> it just so happened her tumors were exactly where her cell phone had been against her skin, her bare skin for about six years. >> reporter: surgeons removed tiffany's left

breast. >> it's kind of coincidental it's right where i kept my cell phone are. >> reporter: the dots are where her humors developed and the doctor says it exactly matched her cell phone. this image shows the tumors were just under the surface of her skin. >> all in this area right here. which is where i tuck my cell phone. >> reporter: jane said she did that for ten years. she had a massectomy. >> i thought cell phones were safe. >> reporter: breast surgeon lisa bailey says cell phone-related breast cancer can be common, but doctors rarely ask about phones. i looked at this random case. would this be in the case where a cell phone would have been carried on the outside? >> very likely, if it was. >> i would never wear a cell phone immediately next to my body and i would advise all women not to do that. >> reporter: nevertheless bras like these

are now on the market with pockets for cell phones. doctors say it may be the heat of the battery or the radio frequency radiation. that make these risky. especially for younger women. >> these young breasts are in the early evolution and more sensitive to changes that might lead to cancer. >> reporter: breast cancer special and others are now sending a warn and say men are also getting breast cancer under cell phones in shirt pockets. the wireless industry cite a lack of scientific evidence that cell phones cause breast cancer. >> there is no evidence, but that is because we haven't studied it. >> either further data either supports it or disproves it, i would keep cell phones away from the body and in particular, the breasts. >> reporter: you should read the manufacture's fine print, the new iphone manuel for instance says keep the phone ten millimeters away from any body part. >> it's as simples that and it

might safe a life and avoid a massectomy and chemotherapy. it's easy to do and why take the chance. >> reporter: tiffany's mother says she wished she would have spoken up. >> if there is a risk and with don't find out five, ten years from nows we'll find a whole cluster of those with breast cancer. >> as you can imagine we had a lot of reaction tour story on our website and facebook page from both men and women. paula chavez says, "please ladies do not carry your cell phones in your bra. radiation is a recipe that you don't want to take a chance with." charles wrong was a bit more skeptical and wrote, "i don't believe this 100%, yes phones have radiation, but cause cancer? why isn't there a case with someone having brain cancer for using the phone for 15 years? >> we have more information for you on ktvu.com.

s he a painful debilitating medical condition and shingles is often described as an older person's condition, but it's afflicting more and more younger people including a san francisco giant's player. again, health and science editor john fowler. >> reporter: this nursing student told us it startedded as a painful red patch on her ribs. >> when i got shingles i was on bed rest for two weeks. >> reporter: she blames first job stress. >> i was very unaware that i was stress. to me i thought i was busy, so it was a big surprise. >> reporter: 25-year-old giant's catch, buster posey got shingles and former cardinal's messenger tony la russo got shingles so bad. it's a outbreak of dormant chickenpox virus erupting along nerves. >> the pain can go on for

weeks and on occasion can be permanent. >> reporter: studies show 95% of us have the chickenpox virus and the immunization. around kids with chickenpox adults get a immune boost and rare will get shingles. >> doctors say this vaccine can cut your chance of shingles in half. you can think of it as like a chickenpox booster. >> you give it when you are old enough to protect you when you are 80 and yet young enough to have low risk of shingles. >> reporter: just a bigger dose of children's chickenpox virus the shingle's vaccine is fda- approved for those 50 and older. >> it can be really painful. >> i hear it keeps people from doing quite a bit. so i hope i can avoid it.

>> reporter: doctors say one way, reduce stress. >> the herpes virus whether a cold sore or shingles do all appear to have some relationship to stress. >> reporter: paula says she is controlling her stress. one bout of shingles was enough. >> when we return, our investigation into how parolees, including sex- offenders are using a legal loophole to cut off her court- ordered gps trackers without fear of going back to prison. tonight on the 10:00 news, shot and killed in broad daytime, the surprising location of a fatality shooting in east bay. muss how this backyard can lead to how medical marijuana is grown in one bay area city. a fire damages this restaurant in alameda yawn why investigators think the blaze was no accident. you need safeway sugar for just $1.97. and agic thing that makes everyone want another -- only $2.99 for challenge butter.

and when hands get messy, quite surely they'll say, "yum! wow! yay! what a sweeter holiday." safeway. ingredients for life.

. when sex-offenders go on parole, gps tracking devices are a condition of that parole, nonetheless some choose to cut

those devices off. in fact, as ktvu's john sasaki reports of almost 1200 at-large offenders violating the tracker mandate, almost a thousand are sex-offenders, and could be in or close to your neighborhood. >> reporter: this page from the department of correction's website may come as a surprise, updated daily shows at-large parolees who bailed on the state's gps monitoring system including many sex-offenders from bay area counties, such as ronny cook from santa clara guilty of sexual battery and this man guilty of child moisturation. >> if you are a sex offender on the loose you are still being looked for. >> reporter: ktvu obtained this whistle- blower letter and sounding the alarm of those who disabled their anklets and could be leaving near minors all in violation of their parole and no one is looking for them. >> you take your ankle monitor

off, that is supposed to be the big tool-senate bill 109 was the realignment bill that changed the way the california prison system operates and some argue has removed the ability of state to return sex- offenders to prison for parole violations. >> if you are a sex offender and on the run, that is not a low-level violation, folks that is series. >> reporter: one problem is cutting off the gps tracking advice is not a felony and because of jail overcrowding this kind of misdemeanor will not land a person back in county jail for long if at all. >> depending on what county you are in, if you are in fresno or stanislaus county they are not taking them because of overcrowding. >> after pouring through hundreds of pages of parolees on the look like we found one

name, ortiz who was arrested for obsconding and failing to registers a sex offender, and he is now back behind bars, but for less than five months. after we aired our story, state senator ted lieu plans on introducing legislation very soon making it a felony for any parolee to disable their gps device. coming up, how some holiday scanners operate. [ crickets chirping ]

[ traffic passing ]

♪ [ music box: lullaby ] [ man on tv, indistinct ] ♪ [ lullaby continues ] [ baby coos ] [ man announcing ] millions are still exposed to the dangers... of secondhand smoke... and some of them can't do anything about it. ♪ [ continues ] [ gasping ] . whether it's salvation army bell or the food bank's call for holiday help the person to person touch works best at the door of bay area stores, small malls and street corners. rita williams launched a to- month investigation and learned how one charity was padding its pockets instead of helping the helpless. >> reporter:

giver beware. you give, but where does your money go? how do you know? do you feel bad that you are collecting under false pretenses? you are if you are legitimate, why are you running away? we take this woman who called herself dee, collecting money for rose-lee house, which she told our producer in this undercover producer was a shelterer. >> . >> it's for battered women and children. >> reporter: where is that? >> it's in santa clara county? >> she is conning people. she is a conartist.. >> reporter: that is why this shopper contacted us. we watched her arrive before dawn to get a spot in front of a coveted target store and stay until well after dark. we saw people geff her money, lots of it and in return she gave them a sucker. how much have you given to rose- lee house? >> i would say $10, $15, we don't have a lot to give.

>> reporter: for four months we dug deeper and found the story was bigger than this one women, what appears to be a ring out of a dicken's novel. this man says he was recruited by the same folks. >> on the collections it's a 60/40. >> reporter: with zero left for the charities he says are nonexistent. >> i was angry and i was broke. but i wasn't that broke rfp we visited the real rosalee house in san francisco for survivors of domestic violence. folks there said they had great need and the street solicitors are robbing them of donations. they complained, but nothing happened. >> it's frustrating to not

have somebody handle it in an appropriate manner. >> reporter: target and other stores put up signs warning customers. san josi police spokesperson albert morales used to work in fraud and says the unit has gone from 8 to 2 detectives, investigating 4600 cases a year. >> you know what? i spent probably the most amount of hours on a fraud case only to find out that the punishment that they received was far less than what criminals received and got way with a lot more money. >> reporter: street officers don't check to see did the tax id number of the alleged charity is valid and in it case it isn't. the number is for a city business license you get on- line, the person who runs the office told us that the information you submit even your name is not verified. if they had checked like we did at the location listed for rose-

lee house they would find this motel and folks who say they have never heard of it. >> would you say it's stealing? >> i would say it. >> reporter: st. joseph's church has spent decades working with the homeless and domestic violence victims. she called the number on the flyer to see if there was shelter space for one of her pregnant clients. >> he said well we do work with individuals. we do get them into motels, but we're out of now. >> reporter: when i called willie mcmillan he said why i am picking on him and said he would call me back with his tax id number and an attorney would call me. knope has. what is the name of this charity? >> as for dee when she saw us coming she grabbed the money lockbox and suckers. >> reporter: could you ask willie to come

out here loaded them into a car and sped away. hitting a shopping cart as she went. >> this story came to us by one of you, a viewer and we want to hear more from you. if you have an idea, please e- mail us at ireports@ktvu.com. californians have just voted themselves numerous tax increases for the common good, but personal good seems to be the prime motivation for many tax scofflaws. >> reporter: this attorney is seen smiling with pictures of president obama and former president clinton, but he wanted nothing to do with our camera. >> we're trying to track down those who owe the state and you happen to be no. 203 on the state, on the ground

the state $280 he,000. >> i pay my fair share. i pay all of my taxes as i can. and so that is all i have got to say. >> reporter: the san francisco attorney told us in a letter today that he is working with the franchise tax board to pay his bill. he is just one in a long list of californians on the hook for back taxes. we reviewed the top 500 tax beats and found respected professionals including other lawyers, doctors and nurses and hollywood celebrity and the top of the list is san francisco tech pierre halsey

pioneer halsey minor. we confronted another tax evader. and your husband owe more than $500,000 to the state? >> no, we don't. >> reporter: the franchise tax board also says the couple living in this 2.5-acre gated estes is clinton is way behind on its taxes. >> you are no. 229. no. 229. then there is dr. de leon, jr. of walnut creek, no. 1 on the list of corporate tax delinquents. we're just asking why he didn't pay a $4.1 million tax bill? we were told the doctor wouldn't see us and only clients. missing money that could have a direct impact on everything from education to public safety. >> when we come back it seems

to be a mystery of the universe, which mobile phone service is really best? we'll show you your own personal best option.

. with with cell phone contracts lasting two years many consumers want to make sure they get the carrier that delivers best quality for the lowest price, but no one service fits a. ktvu's tom vacar found a valuable free tool that custom tailors your mobile phone decision. >> reporter: who has the best mobile phone service? >> verizon. >> at&t. >> metro pcs. >> we never tell anybody who is the best cell phone company for them. >> reporter: but he can help because he is ceo of root metrics, who says uses only store bought unmodified phones indoors outside and while driving, testing phone's main uses.

>> we put software on it that helps to automate tests and tests we run are calls and upload and download data tests and texting. >> reporter: employees record the data and transfer it to free maps you can access, but that general information is not specific to how you use your phone. >> for some people all they want that phone for is for calling. other people all i care about is data services and if i am a teenager i probably only care about texting. >> reporter: so to make it more useful, it allows consumers to check signal strength and speed right where they are and even report dead spots. the more people who use it, that combined data makes it more accurate. >> what the crowd and consumer provides here is much more of a real-time level of information and many more places and kind of all the time. >> reporter:

that is because many factors affect call and data quality, including the number of cell towers that the carrier has, the type and amount of wireless frequencies that they use, the topography of the land and the weather. >> in fall and winter, phone signals have fewer leaves to penetrate. >> we're seeing differences of 10-20% in terms of performance. >> reporter: root metrics says it retests each area every six months to keep up with ever changing scenarios and technologies. consumers contribute everyday. >> outlet malls are billed as a way to shop your favor r- favorite high-end brand at a fraction of the cost, but are you really spend more than what you bargained for. here is what my investigation revealed? >> i got two pairs.

>> reporter: nancy lewis cruised by the outlet stores before her cruise to mexico. she came regard to load up. alexandra flores came here with a different mission. >> i came because i was dress shopping. >> reporter: what did you buy? what are these? >> nike shoes. >> reporter: how did that happen? >> i found them for a really great price, so i just bought them. >> reporter: both women are textbook outlet shoppers, but yarrow says despite mawhat the pricetag tells you. >> it would be rare to find a really great super huge bargain at an outlet mall today like you did five years ago. >> reporter: according to yarrow, retailers got rid of it at outlet stores and flash stores on the internet, but 80% of all the

merchandise eight typical outlet mall is made specifically for outlet stores. the price may be lower, but yarrow says so too is the quality. something that many shoppers didn't know about. >> that is really surprising. >> reporter: one way to do that is examine the label. this is the banana republic label. and these diamonds say these were made for the outlet store. we asked the company and got this response saying, "the stores have two separate design teams and sell products specifically created for each store. the difference is banana republic factory stores are sold for exceptional prices." i go where the bargains are. >> i like them and i saw the price and looked them more. >> reporter: yarrow says bargain shoppers

get too wrapped up in markdowns. >> it's part of the reason why people have closets full of clothes and nothing to wear because they are just buying something based on price and not necessarily because it's something that they really wanted to get. >> reporter: shoppers can find good deals at outlets. >> free people is one of my favorite brands, but sometimes it can be a little expensive. i got this and it was $88 and i got for $38.9. >> reporter: that same shirt is full price and the lowest price we could find was $14 more than what she paid. but we also found plenty of merchandise that was about the same price you would find in a regular store. these shoes at the rockport outlet in gilroy were on sale for $1 less than full price. studies show that shoppers spend more in bargain mode because they don't want to waste the time and expense that they have invested driving to the outlet or have a coupon that they don't want to waste. >> that causes a lot more

spending than a lot of consumers relate. >> reporter: yarrow says look only at today's price and ask yourself do i want it? do you need it? it's that kind of judiciousness that they says leads to spending less while feeling more successful at shopping, adding one perfect thing is better than a bag load of almosts. college can be expensive these days, so expensive many people forego to. we investigated a new trend of students signing up at major universities, taking classes online for fro. ktvu reporter tara moriarty found a drawback to the cheaper alternative. >> reporter: most of these students pay $20,000 a year in tuition to be here. >> piece a highly touted class on artificial intelligence at

ucs berkeley, but you can take it for free on the worldwide web. >> he got a job with a palo alto on-line advertising company after he completed six on-line courses in five months. >> thinking about it is that no one really pays too much attention to credentials and people are interested in what you know and what you can do. >> it's like coming out west in the gold era. >> reporter: professor dublin, who tempes an intro to math class at stanford, which is also available free on-line, says this is unchartered territory. >> i have student as young as 14 and into their 80s. >> reporter: they are called massive open on-line course and at stanford

three moocs were offered this. >> hanna isn't sure how she feels about people getting for free what she pays top dollar for. >> a little frustrating since i'm paying so much. >> reporter: these are some of the companies that offer classes. tamir says audis saved him about $15,000. >> i might have taken aboutia year to get something comparable. >> reporter: professor dublin says these do not lead to a college degree. >> it's a buyer beware if someone hires someone with these certificates. >> reporter: some say on-line is not on campus and to get that experience you have to pay stanford experience, but stanford says this experience on-line can give you a taste of a stanford education for free. when we return, bullying has become more and more

visible, particularly as those can use the internet to harass their classmates and we'll investigate if the new laws are working.

despite the internet's wonders it gives bullies and others a place to pick on people. ktvu's claudine wong set out to find if california's new anti- bullying laws are working. >> reporter: the bullying is often caught on video, this video posted earlier this year by a frustrated mom in vallejo. last month, connecticut police investigators threatening facebook posts. and bullying can devastate, just days ago a 15-year-old who was taunted on-line took her own life. the stories are new, but bullying is not. assembly member laura faced it has a child. >> did your school keep you safe? >> my school did not, no. i felt i was alone in this. >> reporter:

is did safe now? are we doing enough now? how would you respond? >> i would say i don't think we're doing enough. >> reporter: since 199 ten state laws about discrimination and bully having passed and two went into effect in july. one of those laws provides a paper trail. we sifted through hundreds of federal discrimination complaints and struggled to find any that dealt directly with bullying and the state says won't find any in the uniform complaints either because it wasn't included in the definition, but it is now. they still advise people to go to teachers. >> this law has a clause for teachers tover vein when safe to do so and when they witness a case of bulling whying. that is the first time that instance has been codified in a sense. >> reporter: the first time a $400,000 school audit is underway. >> he want to see what is in place and what is working and what isn't? to see if the teachers know what the rules are, know what

the laws are and actually talk to students and parents to see if they understand what their rights are. >> reporter: assembly member ammiano who wrote one of the laws supports the audit, but says, "i think it's too early to say if the law is working. homophobic and bullying attitudes have been around 100 years and we can't expect them to go away in 100 days." you can't sleep tight if the bedbugs bite unas an investigation by ktvu's david stevenson showed even the nation's strictest regulations make no difference to busy biting bedbugs while in a humble hobble or hotel. >> it's on our pillows and then we slept, we sleep and we

are really afraid. >> reporter: they are bedbugs the scourge of hotels and hotel guests. tourists in san francisco's union square showed us bites on their bodies. what do you think should be done so it doesn't happen to anybody else? >> i don't know. it's very hard to kill them. >> reporter: it's a secret that every hotel operator knows. any traveler can meet up with bedbugs, whether in a room, on a plane or even in a movie theater. >> a lot of times they are traumatized and i have people crying and you have to reassure them and make sure that they understand that it's not your fault. >> reporter: the san francisco public health department says tourist hotels tend to handle infestations on their own. the bedbug registry which posts complaints on hotels ranging from budget to luxury is encouraging operators to speak out online about their efforts to stop the problem. >> because people react differentlo this pest. we cannot look at a bite and say whether or not it's a bedbug. >> reporter:

nevertheless, public health agencies say the problem seems to be getting worse. >> pest operators as a business have been treating bedbugs at a much greater number and percentage than they have ten years ago. pest control companies say adult bedbugs can usually be spotted with the naked eye, but not always. >> the thickness of a credit card is all you need for a bedbug to hide in. >> reporter: hard enough to spot and even he has missed them in his own hotel room and brought them back home. pest control experts say you should take few chances when you check in. he keep his baggage in the middle of the room and inspects the mattress boxspring, the bedskirt and even the headboard, places that he says bedbugs can hide without disturbance until they are ready to

strike. we followed a san francisco health inspector where he pointed out a heavy bedbug infestation. san francisco on july 1st implemented some of the nation's out of itest enforcements. landlords must pay for a licensed pest control company and six weeks later they have to verify that the bugs are come landlords face fines for not rolling the rules. bedbugs don't care about the thread-count on sheet. you are a warm meal and that is all they care about it. >> this legislation passes unanimously at the board of supervisors. >> reporter: new legislation would require san francisco health inspects to conduct an independent inspection at the end of those six weeks. still health officials admit they need more people to fight bedbugs. >> i believe there is maybe one city that looks better than us on paper, which is new york city, but truthly, they don't

have enough inspectors either. >> reporter: which means for now, these little blood suckers could be an unwelcomed surprise under any mattress. after we first aired our story the san francisco board of supervisors approved an ordinance that requires exterminators to report to the department of health as for hotels, they are not obligated to tell their guests. though the second amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear arms a person's bad conduct can take that right, but not necessarily the weapon away. ktvu's mike mibach looks at what amounts to a military battalion of armed californians who have no right to have them. >>locked and loaded, rolling out, radios on. target city on this

night. >> search the residence. san leandro. >> initial contact is the most dangerous. robot slide around to the left. >> reporter: special agents from the california department of justice are on the hunt. >> it appears nobody is home like now. >> reporter: they keep moving door-to-door, day into night, looking for a number of people -- . >> next one up is no. 6. >> reporter: people who they say lost their rights to own guns, but who still have them. >> people have security doors and you can't see behind the security door when you are on the outside. >> reporter: he talks about the unknown and that is critical to point out because these agents really never know what they are going to find. this instance they knocked on the door of a woman that the state deemed mentally disabled. had he we want to have a 9 millimeter and she it and she found the ammunition that goes with it. >> she is prohibited until

2017. >> reporter: 19,374, the number of armed, prohibited persons in california who in all van estimated 34,000 guns. and as of last month, the california doj says more than 2700 of these individuals live in the bay area. this east bay resident who lives a few doors down where agents confiscated the weapons and ammunition likes the action that the state is taking. >> someone who has a criminal record should not have a gun. >> reporter: the state dodger says it cross revenues people with registered firearms with a list of people prohibited to carry them, convicted felons, domestic violence offenders and folks with mental health convictions. >> we're trying to prevent violentant acts happening from those

prohibited people. >> reporter: baldwin park, california, february, 2008, roy pervez shots and kill his mother and two others including a 4-year-old and pleaded guilty to the murder charges. four years earlier, police say perez bought the guns he used legally. authorities say at the title of the measures his name was in the database of people whose gun should have been taken away. it never was. according to statistics provided by california doj, about 75% of the prohibited people that they are looking for are those with mental health disorders. >> you could find somebody who is stable, very unstable, medicated. so the agents are on high alert when they go up to these doors because they don't know the mental stability of person behind the door when they make contact. >> reporter: says many police departments don't have the tile or money to go after the weapons and that

leaves the california doj bureau of firearms. >> everyday the system is populated by new people. so it's populating faster than we can bring the number down. >> reporter: they are on their own, every week, one city at a time, one door at a time, looking to keep you and others safe. for more information on all of our special reports just go to ktvu.com and again, we want to hear from you. if you have an idea, e-mail us at ireports@ktvu.com. investigators can and should have impact, not just to expose, but to initiate action and to right wrongs. for ktvu it renews our determination to bring light where light is needed. thanks for watching.