and they toppled like dominoes. what led to this mess at a party city store. the news starts in just seconds. good evening, tonight st. pete detectives say a convenience store owner has been stocking the shelves using ebt or food stamp cards that he purchased at a discount from customers.

scheme has been going on for years and cost taxpayers $1.5 million. >> reporter: this is the result of a 15 month undercover investigation. st.petersburg police raided the king food mart on 22nd street south taking the entire inventory. they believe the owner, wale murray bought most of this stuff using ebt cards he bought from people that stopped by. >> he said this, if he liked you you got 50-cents on a dollar, if not, you got 30- cents on the dollar. >> reporter: it didn't stop there. he used the cards at sam's cards and sold other items on places on both sides of the bay in a scheme that's been going on for 13 years. king food mart is out of business. a handwritten sign says food stamp down. but the truth is murray didn't even have a swipe device to

privilege in 1998. police have arrested a total of 58 but they have a list of 50 more that may go down in this rip off scheme. and check out the video. the thief driving up to a truck and steals a gas trimmer. tampa police are looking to solve a series of bold home break-ins it happened in south tampa over the weekend. jeff patterson shows us this time a thief hit an area that's not known for crime. >> reporter: on tree lined streets with some homes worth well over a million dollars, crime isn't normally a concern. on saturday, that peace shattered. >> they kicked in the front door that i thought was pretty secure. >> reporter: keith robert shows me where his door was kicked in

>> the closets were in disarray. >> reporter: tampa police tell us four homes were broken into on saturday in the paul macia and estates neighborhood. in one case. the thief broke into the house and the homeowner was in the shower. >> reporter: police got one thief. this surveillance video with a white car that parked in front of one of the homes they burglarized. tampa police want to stop this thief before someone is harmed during a burglary. jeff patterson, newschannel 8. traffic is flowing again on 66th street in pinellas county hours after a gas leak caused evacuations. a contractor working for the county hit a gas line. nearly a dozen businesses were evacuated for a while and the road was shut down until that gas line could be capped.

a big change in the construction zone on interstate 275 caused headaches for thousands of commuters. mark douglas shows us what it would take to get traffic moving again. >> reporter: new traffic pattern, caution, caution, caution. >> reporter: there was plenty of caution as dozens of morning commuters took a straighter but slower path to tampa. i was one of them. >> bumper to bumper to bumper to bumper. >> reporter: so was carlos arroyo. >> to be honest with you it's been a nightmare, i'll tell you. >> reporter: by late morning, downtown bound traffic was still backed up all the way to the howard franklin bridge as thousands of drivers negotiated tighter temporary lanes along the just opened stretch near the dale mavery interchange. >> it will get better. >> reporter: for motorists who were troubled by the congestion, the d.o.t. tells us the pain is only temporary. as soon as they open the fourth lane which is within the next

will get better. in tampa, i'm mark douglas, news 8. we're seeing remarkable pictures taken inside a south florida party city store where row after row tipped over. seven rows of shelves toppled like dominoes. three people suffered minor injuries. palm beach county firefighters looked under the shelves to find any more victims. it's unclear what caused that collapse. inmates could have a reason to appeal their sentences thanks to the u.s. supreme court. the high court ruled the way florida sentences people to death is not constitutional. in florida, a jury can recommend death but a judge makes the ultimate decision. the venice public library has closed for good. county officials say it's just too expensive to fix it.

february 1st and a temporary kiosks will be opened up. the news was hard for some. >> i know the people at the youth desk, i know them by name. >> reporter: the library has been at this location for 50 years. in the mid-year, county officials will begin having meetings to discuss plans for a new facility. a cool day was the perfect day for fire officials to learn what they would do if there was a huge fuel spill. >> there's been a lot of good discussions after each new scenario. the guys discuss about what happened, what went wrong, what went right, what could they do better. i think they've learned a lot. >> reporter: in the past, the officials had to travel to

training but this time they got to do it on their own. gorgeous weather, steve mosley, a friend from tampa say good job sir. and i was like, he doesn't get the credit. >> yeah, i do. but only when it's good though. >> okay then, well done. >> last night there was a freeze warning in place for these two areas. largely because the humidity was up. this issued by the national weather service in ruskin. the rain chances the next couple of days up to 30% later thursday into friday. approach of an area of low pressure lifting our rain chances through this period. about a 30% chance of rain for next sunday as well. temperatures also will warm friday and saturday into the 70s again thanks to an easterly breeze. but alas we will have cooler air up the road.

they're going to be pretty chilly. we've seen a pretty good stream of high and mid-level clouds moving in from the south moving across the central and southern portions of the the state of florida. a chilly start to the day. hopefully we'll get sunshine to warm things up. we got to 67 degrees for a high temperature today. we'll have more on that weekend forecast coming up. still ahead on 8 at 7:00. >> new guidelines saying women should wait longer to have mammograms. coming up we talk to one survivor and other doctors on why they say you should get tested earlier. and a woman is dealing with rats living inside her walls but her landlord wants to evict

a new government panel is now recommending women wait

it says the risk isn't worth getting screened earlier. but as candace mccowan learned today, one local survivor disagrees. >> reporter: rachel murray didn't think she would be here. >> i was getting nauseous a lot so i took a pregnancy test and instantly plus signs. >> reporter: she has a toddler and another baby on the way. and says that she wouldn't be here if she didn't get a mammogram. >> as a breast radiologist i want to save the most lives so i'm going to recommend regular mammography at age 40.

that false positives can be expensive both financially and emotionally. no matter the guidelines both women agree waiting until 50 is the biggest risk of all. >> it just doesn't work. >> waiting and seeing you will lose your life with cancer. >> reporter: dr. neil's biggest advise she says talk to your doctor, let her know your concerns and go from there. candace mccowan, channel 8. insurance companies base their coverage off of these governmental guidelines but under current law, insurance must cover screening for those age 40 and up. well there's a good chance your web browser is riskier to use today. we'll tell you what you need to check coming up. also ahead, it looks like a drone following you around taking selfies is a pretty good idea. find out how many have already

on wall street, the dow gained 117 points, the nasdaq hit 107 points. oil dipped below $20 a barrel

there's something showing up in jar of nice mandarin oranges. shards of glass. if you have one you can take it back to the store for refund. the medicine is made by parigo but it's sold under store brand including dollar general and cvs, you should toss the dosage cup and use one that is correctly marked. a starbucks barista in arizona is getting a lot of attention for creating three unofficial valentine's day gifts. tony aguilar created three new frapuccinos. they include a valentine frapuccinos with strawberries and cream and raspberries at the bottom. you can take the recipe into

the next time you need a ride to see a doctor you might get a lyft. lyft is filling needs for nonemergency transport. the med transnetwork is booking about 10% of its medical transportation using lyft or 2,500 rides a week. the partnership with med trance is lyft's first jump into the medical world. delta is the second largest airline in the world. the new rankings was determined 2015. country's largest carrier. self-driving vehicles have faced a lot of obstacles but test in snow. ford says it will be the first to test self-driving cars on slick snowy frozen roads. the testing will take place in michigan including at m city seen here in warming weather.

facility designed for self- driving car experimentation. ford recalls -- ford calls the project snowtonomy. this is a very good time to update your web browser. starting today the older browsers will not receive security updates so using them will leave you vulnerable to hackers. try the new edge browser which comes with windows 10. it looks like a new selfie drone is going to be a big hit. forbes reports the camera has already sold 60,000 units. the lilly is a squad copter that senses the location of the owners. you toss it up in the air and it shoots video of whatever

the lily should start shipping this summer. it's awesome. frustration over an infestation. a pregnant woman's apartment is crawling with critters and no matter how many calls she makes she just can't seem to find a solution for this rat problem. investigator shannon behnken has the story. >> reporter: you won't believe how much lee pays for this apartment, $640 a month and the walls are full of rats. >> at nighttime you can hear the rats in the walls scratching. >> reporter: her landlord at beach wood apartments won't let her out of her lease. >> because there's a hole right here where they come out of. >> reporter: maintenance solution put rocks on the hole and hope that keeps the nasty

poison inside. >> the rats are dying but now the smell is coming out of the vents because we have to let them die inside the wall. >> reporter: a leak forced maintenance to tear out this ceiling and they took out insulation are mold. and guess what came out. rats. >> that's where they put the rat trap in this little box. >> reporter: lee has come out home to find the rats chowing away on their counter tops. >> i didn't know that rats could jump from the floor to the counter top that high. >> reporter: fed up she turned to 8 on your side. we found the complex is owned by a canadian company with a local property manager. so i gave her a call. >> reporter: so what are you going to do to get rid of the rats and the rats that are dead in the walls. >> reporter: the manager assures me the rats will be gone soon. as for lee, as soon as she

gone too. >> she's never had a problem with my rent, i've been on time. i've been letting her know this problem is here. >> reporter: shannon behnken, 8 on your side. >> the property owner has been unresponsive. now they plan to bring the issue before the code enforcement board later this month. the complex could face fines or be shut down if it doesn't fix the problem. when you fight fires in sub zero temperatures sometimes you end up with ice sculptures. take a look at this building in omaha over the weekend. the water they used froze. now the building is in danger of collapse thanks to a coating of ice. 10 to 12-inches thick. that's fairly typical when you have extreme cold and pair that

52degrees at 9:00 p.m. temps cool this evening we're picking up a few clouds but generally chilly i think would describe it this evening. we topped out at 67 degrees. with the atmosphere a bit drier. temperatures will fall with those clouds. 57degrees at 11:00 a.m. right now it's 52 degrees, that's the current temp at odessa and new richie. 56 river view. 52 in brooksville. it's 55 in lakeland. few showers down around the florida straits. freeze warnings tonight mainly to the north into south georgia and alabama. these clouds have been streaking throughout the area. a few mid-level clouds as well. nothing serious at the moment. but they certainly are there. if they stick around and they may in some areas it could reflect some heat back in the atmosphere and hold those temps back a little bit. but it's still going to be chilly tomorrow.

maybe a few clouds here. the level of high pressure is still to our west. we're still getting a north and northwesterly flow. it's just a chilly one for us. so a cool start to the day it looks like for tomorrow. getting into thursday, you can see as we head on into the latter half of the day overcast skies including rain chances that pop back in later thursday into friday. that's the rain percentage you see here. in fact, a very mild day on friday with a high of 74 degrees and same for saturday. 74degrees. another cold front up the road will give us cooler temperatures with highs in the 60s through the mar tin luther king holiday weekend. the rain chances are highest as you can see at 60%. that day is friday. so that includes the possibility of some morning rain. potentially for the morning commute the way the timing looks out at the moment. >> but saturday looks pretty decent. >> it does look pretty decent. a slight chance of rain on sunday. temperatures will get warm but they're going to get cool again next week. >> but 74 is perfect warm. >> i think that's perfect warm.

>> just keep it there.

there's something unusual about these two feline sisters. look closely can you spot it. one is a lion, the other is a tiger. the girls were born about a week apart last november. and here's the sad part. both are rejected by their mothers. so the staff at six flags in new jersey decided not a problem. they're going to care for both of them together. and they hope that raising the cubs together will increase their chances of successfully joining the other big cats when they get older. i have so many questions. are lions and tigers roughly the same size when they're full grown. are they competitive. >> was this born from the same mother? >> no, no, no. different mothers.

>> but they were both rejected. wow. >> hopefully it won't turn into a cat fight. >> i think they'll get along just fine. >> you see what i did there. >> sometimes you do that and it's just weaved in there. >> we're back tonight at 11:00. have a great night. david bowie's secret active final days. who knew the rock lemd was dying? and the moment his ex-wife got the shocking news of his death. >> now, on "extra." extra extra david bowie's very last public appearance. the pain he was hiding behind the smiles. >> fans paying tribute. how he hid his illness in plain sight around new york city.

and his first wife's breakdown as he learns of his passing. >> take the time you need. brie larson's fast food binge. taylor kinney and lady gaga. new, beyonce baby rumors. the photos sparking the buzz bey is pregnant. sean penn and kate del castillo under surveillance. >> is she now in danger? >> plus, having cocktails with khloe. taking on every rumor. >> how is lamar doing? >> from lamar to her brother, rob's health. and little sister kendall's media takeover. >> god, i wish i was this girl. >> now, on "extra." universal studios hollywood. the entertainment capital of l.a. >> hi, everyone. welcome to "extra."