copiague started with a house fire that quickly spread to 3 other homes and before it was over, the smoke could be seen for miles. >> and this is a live look interest chopper 2 right now. you can see the fire has been contained. but a burned-out shell of the home is all that remains. jennifer mclogan reports. >> reporter: swift action from hundreds of firefighters kept this blaze from getting worse. they descended here on the explosive scene on east santa barbara road in copiague. three homes at the end of this street appear damage or destroyed. two others can be salvage. windy conditions and dust. flames jumped across the canal

county park where brush burned intensely for hours due to the tall grass and reeds. black thick smoke turned white. a few firefighters suffered smoke inhalation but homeowners made it out safely worried about their pets. >> we feel bad for the neighbors that have this problem. we are a block over. we came over to see if we could help anybody. >> your house may be affected? >> yeah. >> i got a call at work from somebody who used to live nearby and my house is burned to the ground. you know, i left work and worried about my cats. i live alone. >> you're able to speak to me? >> i'm trying to get down there. >> please go and let us know if there's anything we can do to help. >> reporter: a brave young man we feel for him a brush fire that came one of the worst in

wonderful action by first responders. contained this so homeowners here who suffered so horribly in sandy were not victimized anymore. again, five houses damaged or destroyed. we are live in copiague tonight. jennifer mclogan, cbs 2 news. >> thank you. the conditions just right for fires to spread. lonnie quinn in the weather center to explain it. >> that's the combo. dry conditions with the wind. you saw jennifer mclogan's hair blowing around. you got some wind gusts over 20 miles per hour that can pick up embers. it can start the fires like it did. there's not a drop of rain in our atmosphere. it picks up the reflex of the smoke and ash in the atmosphere and those northwest winds pushing everything down to the south. that was the picture a little earlier okay? what we have outside as of right now blue sky breezy still out there. but look at this. 67 with a dew point of nine. a dew point that's the temperature you have to cool

so it's just not going to happen. you're not going to get any atmosphere. the winds gusting up to 23 miles per hour in spots. so what you should plan on the p.m. tonight and then for your day tomorrow in portions of new jersey, the same deal, no rain until late tomorrow the earliest chance. friday rain is likely but the temperatures will be going up. we'll talk about that later. new at 6:00 tonight, police say the notorious ninjaburger will has been caught more than a decade after he started his crime spree. prosecutors say this man terrorized more than 100 families on staten island. ilana gold with the new details now and how police track him down. >> reporter: arraigned in staten island court today, prosecutors say he is the >> burglar telling us the convicted rapist and convicted sex offender admitted to break-

>> rest assured knowing that the ninja burglar case has finally been solved. >> reporter: he could stan sa is accused of terrorizing homes in the middle of the night while disguised as a ninja. most of his crimes were in high end staten island neighborhoods. they released video of him holding a ladder scouting out a property before he allegedly put on that dark clothing and struck. one of the victims spoke to us about his encounter eight years when he found the bandit at 1 a.m. in his kitchen holding nunchuk. >> there standing facing me was a ninja. a guy dressed up as a ninja. >> reporter: but investigators say costanzo committed dozens of other break-ins across new jersey including bergen county and targeted homes in upstate new york and connecticut. police from around the tri-

their similar break-in patterns and they connected them. >> he detailed how he targeted homes between 6:30 p.m. and 7 a.m. >> reporter: even though he is accused of more than 100 crimes, prosecutors can only charge him in connection with three because of the statute of limitations. it's five years. prosecutors say costanza will enter a guilty plea here in court tomorrow and sentenced and will be in jail for decades. ilana gold, cbs 2 news. >> he faced a judge in connecticut on monday in connection with a break-in there. police say he woke up a 66- year-old woman held her at knifepoint and then stole her jewelry. a search in brooklyn for a man who tried to rape a woman while jogging in prospect park. a 23-year-old woman told police the suspect armed with a knife grabbed her from behind and then threw her to the ground. he then allegedly threatened to sexually assault her. she said he ran off when she

the attack happened about 5 a.m. near the garfield entrance. police have now beefed up patrols. >> we must catch a rapist. there is no other way to look at it, a person who has attempted to rape must be apprehended. >> the woman said she struck her finger when she struggled to get away. a car hit an overpass in southern state parkway. an ambulance driver and patient were killed. the em. it had a broken leg and concussion. the ambulance belongs to a private medical transport service. a crash in queens a driver died after his car went off the whitestone expressway about noon. police say the man was heading north on the whitestone expressway near the van wyck

the impact sent his car over a ramp that landed 25 feet below on harper street. the man was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries. no word on what caused the crash. thousands of voters purged from the books. missing ballots and closed polling stations. those are just a few problems voters encountered when they went to cast their ballots for the new york primary yesterday. now the city's board of elections is under investigation. cbs 2's hazel sanchez here now with more on the polling problems. hazel. >> reporter: the board of elections director tells me these problems are ones the city sees every election. but more attention is being paid this time because of popular candidates. and the new voters they're bringing in. the new york primary was a bug day for the candidate but an even more meaningful day for 36-year-old tommy hart from ridgewood queens who registered to vote for the first time after he said he finally found a candidate he supported. >> i was approved in their system.

i registered to vote with democratic party. and, um, i went to the poll station and i wasn't in the book. >> reporter: he wasn't the only one are voting issues. the new york attorney general's office says it received more than 1,000 complaints about voting irregularities. several viewers sounded off on the cbs new york facebook page: >> it was just really discouraging moment for me. and yeah, i just felt robbed of my vote. >> reporter: others complained about missing ballots, polling site changes without notification stand closing early. >> any of those issues are absolutely 100% regrettable. we do a post-election analysis after every election to make

past are not repeated in the future. >> reporter: to ensure mistakes aren't repeated the city comptroller audit the board of elections. >> thousands of people were disenfranchised. up to 125,000 people were purged from the voter rolls. this is not the way to conduct an election. >> purged is the wrong word. >> reporter: ryan says the voters were removed from the roll because they moved out of the borough or were classified as inactive after changing addresses or failing to vote in two successive elections and not properly reregistering by the march 30 deadline. >> the system is flawed? >> for sure. >> reporter: today attorney general schneiderman says his office will also investigate the new york city board of elections. the race to replace a powerful former politician is still too close to call. democrat todd kaminski declared victory in the

but kaminski leads republican candidate chris mcgrath by 780 vote. there are 2700 absentee ballots that still need to be counted. skelos's senate seat became available when he and his son were convicted of corruption. a long island man is charged with road rage after an incident at a mall. police say he attacked a man and two teens with mace. dick brennan reports. >> reporter: robert said nothing as he was led away in cuffs but police say yesterday he was out of control behind the wheel at hicksville's broadway mall cutting off a car, shouting obscenities and then rushing up to the family inside. >> he did spray pepper mace into the vehicle which hit the occupant of the vehicle, his 19-year-old daughter which was in the passenger seat and his 1-year-old son in the passenger seat rear. >> reporter: was this out of character? his sister and girlfriend ignored reporters as they left court in hempstead but his

police got it all wrong and that labella was the real victim. >> my client may have accidentally cut some people off and they chased him and got out of their vehicle and started attacking him. >> reporter: the attorney says labella had no choice but to use mace in self-defense. but police say witnesses who tried to stop labella told a different story. >> he was pushed into a vehicle and received lacerations and pain in his arm. >> reporter: because of the way labela used mace he is charged with criminal possession of a weapon. >> thank you. dangerous weapons and rounds of ammo taken off the streets. that's not all! the nypd with a major bust in brooklyn. >> plus, new information on an art controversy in a new jersey town. will a gallery owner be arrested for refusing to take down the display? >> also, coming up on the "cbs evening news," politics and math. >> scott pelley joins us with a preview. >> reporter: maurice and

well, after those twin landslide here in the empire state last night, donald trump and hillary clinton are beginning to sound more like nominees than front-runner. we are going to sit with our john dickerson tonight and go over the delegate map and give you an idea of what the likelihood is now that donald trump will clinch the nomination before the convention. that and the rest of the world news all coming up on the "cbs evening news" at 6:30. if your family outing is magical for all the wrong reasons. you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec is different than claritin . because it starts working faster on the first day you take it.

story now about a police tip that turned out to be the tip of the iceberg. detectives investigating reports of credit card skimmers uncovered a stash of guns! >> this afternoon, cbs 2's tracee carrasco got a demonstration of one of those firearms. it's a story that's new at 6:00. >> reporter: this ak-47 assault rifle so powerful it easily pierces through a steel board. the results potentially devastating. >> what makes this rifle so dangerous is the select fire. the ability to shut full automatically as long as you hold the trigger back the gun will fire. >> reporter: in an exclusive demonstration nypd detective robert gasparre from the firearms and tactics section shows us just how much damage these firearms can do and how

>> this is a threat to the police respond to the scene and to the neighborhood. even an accidental discharge would go through a building. >> reporter: last night, the nypd confiscated a loaded ak- 47 along with five other illegal handguns and more than 200 bullets after an illegal credit card operation was discovered. police found credit card skimming devices forged credit cards and thousands of dollars in cash. they arrested one man and two women. the nypd says they are seeing more people involved in these types of financial crimes with dangerous firearms like this ak-47. >> there's drug cartels. there's organized crime. you know? the way they can smuggle in drugs, they can smuggle in illegal guns. [ gunshots ] >> reporter: the nypd is working harder than ever to keep these illegal firearms

carrasco, cbs 2 news. >> the nypd tells us they confiscate assault rifles like that ak-47 about once a month. it's about-face from a town in new jersey over an art gallery that displayed a painting of a woman's back side. englewood gallery owner lawyer are b orghi was facing 90 days in jail and thousands in fines. city leaders had claimed she was breaking the law that prevented nudity from being displayed within public view. well, last night the city council there in englewood agreed to modify the ordinance business display anything. a money makeover for the first time in 100 years, a paper currency! abolitionist harriet tubman will replace andrew jackson on the $20 bill. tubman escaped slavery in 1849 and then helped others get to freedom through the underground railroad. the announcement by the treasury department also means alexander hamilton's image

>> supposed to happen in 2030. >> not for a while. >> a lot of people asking what's the holdup, right? why can't we do it tomorrow? exactly. let's check weather. we have wind, dry, beautiful for most of us but there's a fire danger. >> the fire concerns. that's something we are going to deal with again tomorrow. what i have for you guys as of right now, there's your picture. you're looking outside. and the chrysler building has a beautiful blue sky on top of it. you're dealing with a 67- degree temperature reading and again that sky is nice and clear. so let's move forward and show you what the highs why. you're 67 right now. 68 was your high. 5 degrees above the average. we were in the 80s a couple of days ago. yesterday we were in the 70s. today we are in the 60s. but that stops. now we're going back up again. we could be at 80 by friday. the fire concerns that maurice and kristine, were just

not for friday of. friday rain returns to ou area. tomorrow new jersey is on an alert for, you know, brush fire danger. and we did have a concern about connecticut for tonight. but it's been allowed to expire and it's pushed it well up into portions of northern new england. so tomorrow we watch areas inland in new jersey. even possibly along the coastline, as well. vortex satellite and radar, it's a quiet shot. the bigger picture will show you it's wet weather off to our west that we watch moving in. not for your day tomorrow. i think thursday is going to be good-looking out there. some late clouds will come in. all right? so it's not going to be as bright as today and by friday here we are lunchtime 12 p.m. we could see some light showers make their way in but i think it's better sort off to count on the rain later in the day about 3 p.m. or later for friday maybe even saturday morning but by saturday afternoon it looks nice. want to give you your passover forecast. friday 8 p.m., 72 degrees. chance for thunderstorm.

and it's looking more and more likely there could be some rumblers out there. so 74 on thursday. 77 on friday. possible rain or friday with the corridor of warm air right before the front pushes through with maximum temperatures even if you are catching the rain. saturday 69 with improving afternoon skies. sunday 64. looks good for sunday for the march for babies at lincoln center, monday 63. tuesday 60. wednesday 59. more typical pattern with spring showers. almost every day next week. it's more unsettled. >> thank you. otis is here with a look ahead at sports now. >> could be a big night in brooklyn as the islanders try to take a commanding lead on the panthers. and speaking of brooklyn, the passing of one of college basketball's best show men. definitely within of the best to ever do it in new york

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otis livingston joins us

one of the legends in the city's basketball history. >> yeah. jim boeheim was coach at syracuse says he was a program changer. wayne pearl washington died today of cancer at the age of 52. he was one of the biggest reasons the big east conference became great. a high school all american at brooklyn's boys and girls high. pearl went to syracuse became the big east rookie of the year a three time all east player and all american a wizard with the basketball. his signature moment came in just his 15th collegiate game. a half court buzzer beater to beat boston college by 2. jim boeheim said at the time it was a miracle. but duane makes miracle happens. chris mullin spoke about the rivalry but said what stands out most was his genuine and caring nature. pearl washington dead at the age of 52. stanley cup play-offs game 4 in brooklyn.

team going through the morning skate at the barclays center. they have a golden opportunity. sunday they won in overtime. the aisles battles back all night. >> the crowd was great. i don't think, you know, they realize what a factor they are. >> having home ice in games 3 and 4 and the way the atmosphere was in the building the energy that they bring we feed off that. >> not looking good for the rangers. they took home eye advantage away in pittsburgh and then gave it back. the game was tied at one. the penguins scored two more. game had tomorrow night. >> last night was one of those games like nothing was cooking. make sure that tomorrow we are ready to play.

here we are going to see high compete level and high battle level tomorrow. >> the yankees back at it against against the a's. there are smooth transitions. neil walker has been lie butter. two more homers last night in philly has a team-high six on the season. talk about symmetry, three from the right, three from the left. the nets go for the three-game sweep of the phillies tonight. the nfl draft, the eagles move up to the number 2 spot after trading five picks in the next two drafts to cleveland. and finally tonight, you have to have a passion about something. nick mango not only loves his jets but the rangers. just ask the penguins bench. nick! with the signature blonde locks, yankee let the pens have it last night. the new york photographer's version. look at this. what a great shot by him. rangers could have used him on the ice. guard security had to come over and talk to him.

it's the steelers players are going to be in the crowd? >> what are going to say to nick, by the way, sir, take the hat off?

we'll be right back. [content sigh] ah, excuse me? mr. jones? hi. already? you booked an appointment. i just started cookin. we at time warner cable need to apologize to you. i haven't even started to bronze yet. we no longer give you an excuse to work all day perfecting your tan. starting to even it out. we're making a bunch of changes at time warner cable. including one-hour arrival windows. we'll also tell you how long our visit will take

coming up tonight on cbs 2 news at 11. have you ever let a utility bill go unpaid? >> i didn't know what to think. i was in shock. >> a local woman in tears after a bill bombshell changed her life forever. her story tonight on cbs 2 news at 11. >> plus up next on the "cbs evening news with scott pelley," authorities announce the first criminal charges in the water contamination crisis in flint, michigan. thanks for joining us here at 6:00. see you at 11. have a good evening. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com >> pelley: flint's water contamination is now a criminal case. three officials are charged with felonies. >> they had a duty to protect the health of families and citizens of flint. they failed. >> pelley: also tonight, the front-runners look forward to the finish line. >> we don't have much of a race