news channel 78. a teenager who almost didn't make it. >>reporter: that's right she made it about a mile from her home before collapsing. thankfully someone heard her cries. >> she said can you help me. that's what i remember her saying can you help me. >>reporter: cries for help. at first michael thought it was a joke until he got closer. >> she was laying in the bushes tangled up. >>reporter: in the woods across from his house lay a small tell. >> she got stabbed by something and her feet are all messed up she has no shoes on she's really dirty. she said she can't go back to where she came from. >>reporter: chris and melissa peters are behind bars accused of some of the worst abuse and neglect inside this home in dundee. >> it has shaken our most experienced detectives to the soul. >>reporter: according to court

and only wade 86 pounds. >> had dealt bolt locks on the cabinets to keep them from getting the food to eat. can you imagine? >>reporter: when questioned the couple toke told detectives the girl had mental issues and injured herself but both admitted they never called for help. >> she wouldn't have been alive very much longer. she would have died had she not run and saved her own life that day. >> you guys were here for a reason. >> definitely were for a reason definitely. >> . saved her life. i'm thankful i saved her life. >>reporter: the girl is still in the hospital. she's going to need several surgeries. a 15-year-old boy was also taken from the home but we are told he is in good health. >> how long has this abuse been going on? >>reporter: we're told this was reported back in january. police looked into it.

actually intensified after that initial investigation. >> kudos to that man for coming along and helping her out. the parents of a tampa boy have a message for the driver who hit their son. turn yourself in. 12-year-old darryle ortega was hit last thursday along hannah avenue while playing with a friend. ortega pushed hi friend out of the way. now he has a broken collarbone, road rash and shattered bones in his left leg. his mother is pleading r anyone out there that knows anything i am begging please just give information. >> he didn't even get out to help he hid hit me and then he ran. >> it will be months before he can walk again. tampa police tell us they are looking for a newer model silver ford fusion. >>reporter: a tampa police officer is out of the hospital tonight after being involved in a wrong way crash. we're told that the driver was going to wrong way on south

officer's cruiser at kennedy boulevard. no charges have been filed and police don't suspect drugs or alcohol. its it's been a brutal 48 hours for law enforcement. four officers across the country, including a sanibel police officer shot in the line of duty. in san antonio texas a police officer murdered in his own patrol car. for the families of fallen officers the holidays can be a painful reminder of their loss. tarpon springs police officer charlie condeck was killed in the line of duty ar thoughts with our melanie michael today and i know you've gotten to know charles condark sr. how is he doing does time help at all? >>reporter: i have gotten to know him stacie good evening to you. he is a remarkable person and he misses his son so much. exactly one month from today he'll be marking a somber anniversary the day his son was killed.

sorry that things had to be the way they were. >>reporter: for charlie condark sr. the dream is the same every time. he is helpless as he watches his son slip way. >> i have dreams of him bleeding out. i picture him shot by himself laying there bleeding out. and nobody's helping him. and it's brutal. >>reporter: the grief is h december 21st, 2014 feels like it was yesterday and when he is aching to see his sonny visits him in the cemetery. >> all i want now you know he just doesn't talk back to me. excuse me. i'm sorry. >>reporter: this former nypd officer admits a piece of his own heart dies welshes a fellow member of law enforcement has

those who take lives. >> animals. animals that do this that don't respect come up from behind and shoot, anybody. come up from behind and assassinate them like that. cowards. >>reporter: when asked what advice he would offer to families of fallen officers. >> find a support group and try not to be alone too much. enjoy the the past, good times. >>reporter: tonight we would like to thank charlie condark sr. for sharing his story with us. by the way stacie we'd like to tell thaw the support group he's in right now also has cindy roberts in it. does that name sound familiar? she is the wife of slain officer mike roberts from the tampa police department. charlie condark sr. tells us it's very he important to seek out the support.

thank you mel. live in tarpon springs tonight. >> a group of community leaders is urging the mayor of tampa to give sanctuary to undocumented immigrants. this movies in response to president-elect donald trump's promise to deport more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants. the group delivered a letter to bob buck horn's office this morning asking him to make take a sanctuary city. >> asking for a city policy such as an ordinance prohibiting all enforcement from cooperating with any federal immigration agency. >> mayor buck horn was not there to accept the letter today but a spokesperson told the group that she would set up a meeting with the mayor. an 80-year-old man is fighting for his life tonight after a boat fell on top of him. sarasota county authorities tell us the man had the boat up on a lift when it fell an pinned him underneath. firefighters were eventually able to get him out. the man was airlifted to

condition right now. an 18-year-old is accused of damaging some very expensive cars in st. petersburg. police fell tell us the man in the surveillance video is donovan franklin you see him trying to open the door of a white mercedes then he punches it. we're told he also jumped on top of a rolls royce and a mclaren. the damage totals more than $80,000. still to come tonight construction. it can dragon for what seems like forever. >> should we be paying more to cr coming up how much more money the state dot could fork over for a bay area project. plus a steamy stocking stuffer that raises money for a good cause. we're going to explain why a local fire department is heating things up. . 71 degrees today certainly cool an temperatures falling fast here after sunset. we started out at 29 degrees in brooksville this morning and another cool morning ahead. warm up though for

looking for an alternative to the mad rush of black friday, you might want to try small business saturday. congresswoman kathy castor visited small businesses in seminole heights to promote this annual event. by shopping local your dollars go back into the local economy. small business owners tell us the service they provide is not

big box store. >> we work really hard to create an experience to listen to our customer. we are in tune with the pulse of what's going on locally way more than a lot of bigger stores. you're going to get a unique experience. >> small business saturday is this saturday after thanksgiving. november 26th. the annual lakeland firefighter calendar is out and it's pretty steamy. the rescued helps animals at the spca florida. each month features pets and buff firefighters throughout lakeland. as you can imagine it was pretty interesting to get some of those animals to cooperate for the photos. >> we had squeaky toys we had hot dogs we had pet treats and with the occasional loud noise we were able to guilty them to look in the lens. >> different taking your shirt off in public areas when

>> last year money raised paid for animal medical care and new animal oxygen masks for the fire department. and to find out how you can buy a calendar go to wfla.com. those guys looked good. >> no comment. >> those abs. what's going on. >> for a good cause. >> that is fire good cause. those guys have taken their shirts off before. >> not shy. >> dude you've had your hurt off if i had abs like that i would walkun of it is that what you're saying. >> now. yeah. still ahead tonight we all know that money is a great motivator. >> but should the state be paying more taxpayer money to get construction crews to finish projects early? mark's on i it because you paid

>> the state dot is offering one of its road contractors $5 million extra to finish a major interstate project in czar oso take ahead of schedule. now if the contractor meets this deadline next july you'll pay for it and that's why mark's on it tonight. what's the big rush here mark? s why an extra $5 million to finish a job that should be finished on time? >> the world rowing championship is set to begin stones throw away in accept.

by dot standards that's cutting it extremely close. so they want to make darn sure this project is ready to handle those expected crowds. they call this new interchange at university parkway the diverging diamond. it's the next big thing in interstate exit design and the first one in florida. >> it's going to help tremendously because we're increasing our car. weary eliminating a lot of conflict lanes. >>reporter: dot is trying to ward off a big conflict llc finishinges this front a month before the crowds show up at the world rowing championships. there's intense political pressure from sarasota and manatee conditions and state local lawmakers to get it done in time. >> we're hoping to meet that july deadline. >>reporter: to make sure that happens the dot is sweetening the pot for the $74.5 million project by offering prince contracting $5 million extra

incentive. not a bonus. >> you incentive has predetermined objectives in wright on when you are going to get that money. a bonus comes as a complete surprise. >>reporter: whatever you call it, it's 5 million more dollars and you paid for it. >> what would you say the taxpayers who believe that hey, you're giving away $5 million of our money just so this company can finish on time. >> no we're not giving away $5 million of the taxpayers money. this compa are taking a huge gamble here. >>reporter: for every day passes after next july 29th the dot will take away $200,000 of that ensendtive money. prince would start paying penalties and lose money from its low bid. >> it's our. it's your money it's the cameraman's money. we're a good steward to that money. >>reporter: he insists cash incentives are relatively common in dot projects but there is the biggest one he

project like this in the 12 southwest florida counties in his dot district. >> world rowing championship. $5million. just to get finished a month early. is that worth that amount of money? >> i'm told by the tourism post romeers in sarasota that event is supposed to bring in 12 million direct spent spending. >> this brings in thank you. >> you probably notice from the clear skies and the dry conditions we have here that not much with in the way of precipitation. next couple of days will pick up a bit more easterly flow can't rule out an inland shower right now it's nice to report quiet conditions it's been that way for some time. many areas well over a month without any precipitation. 81 degrees on thanksgiving. going to warm right back up again. doesn't take long in the state of florida once you change that wind direction around

but that was the view in riverview from amber watt you can see the crystalization the ice forming on objects of things like car hoods and sometimes roofs, plants in this case. it didn't stick around long once the sun came up that's the kind of thing we can get. light winds clear skies 29 degrees for low down in brooksville. 75 degrees high for tuesday. look at that temperature jump you can see by thanksgiving another front on saturday staying close to that average high temperature given the time of year. temps quickly in the 50s this evening. 53 degrees at 8:00 a.m. then the sun for tomorrow not much in way of cloudiness 74 degrees for high temperature. expect that warm number to continue in the afternoon. temperatures closer to average but starting out chilly to start the day. 10 degrees below our average level. 59 lakeland plant city.

53 degrees clearwater. bartow 54. sebring 65. a lot of folks are hitting the road or hitting the skies to travel to visit family or just to get out of town. 41 degrees in new york city. 5 degrees minneapolis. 64 in los angeles. airport delays really the only in the country we could fine at laguardia still holding at 113 minutes. got some snow around the area but holiday travel in new york city you know the story there. around the rest of the country don't see much precip on the west coast a little bit of rain. you can see scattered throughout the west. west of dunn very down to albuquerque. northern part of pennsylvania sections of new england as well. there is some snow in that part of the country. dress warmly. back in the tropics and yes the tropics are still active in the atlantic basin tropical storm otto. we talked about this all last week had the potential for development. moving to the west shouldn't get into the atlantic and get a name pacific name not retain the atlantic name. 50 miles per hour winds for

about it around thanksgiving but officially hurricane season runs until the end of novelment we're still officially in it. high pressure continues to move that will give us a more northeasterly flow over the next several days. wednesday pure east and southeast the air will feel milder as we get toward thanksgiving because it has more moisture in it. so it will feel a little bit warmer might be a little bit warm in those afternoon hours if you're sitting directly out in the sun. there you go. thanksgiving on thursday itself near 81 degrees. temps drwi range of temperatures in the mid and upper 70s throughout this temperature. overnight temperatures coolest will be tonight. cool start to the day today. did you guys feel it. >> oh, yeah. heat almost. l thanks steve. i know we have breaking news. >> some breaking news right now. we are learning that several children have been killed in a bus incident in chattanooga and the pictures are unbelievable. looks like the bus is split in two.

police say this bus was carrying 35 students ranging in age from kindergarten to 5th grade when it crashed. the bus was only involved the only vehicle involved here but 35 kids on this bus i heard 23 are injured. now they are saying oh, my goodness updates to come. >> sports is coming up next

the bucs turned some heads around the nfl on sunday and if that 19 to 17 win over the kansas city chiefs is a signature moment in a franchise turn around the door to meaningful football in december is now open. bucks head coach dirk cutter didn't walk want to talk about the big picture but he knows

now. >> going to start piping the war chant. jamison enjoyed that. >> he did. you know what's crazy i didn't know 'tis that one time. after the game we were talking about that third down and we were out of our mind on third down and jameis said yeah the war chant we need to start that at ray jay. i said trust me i'll suggest it. >> third down yesterday was a big deal. jameis spread the ball around i think 6 different receivers caught a ball on third down. >> we really protected well and obviously the offensive line had a huge part in that. adam humphries had a couple of grace chips what we call they will on the outside. doug martin he was fast fantastic in protection yelled. so, given jameis couple extra seconds to get through his progressions it's no secret. we have a lot of stuff designed for mike evans when mike isn't open or they were dunk him they were rolling the coverage to him. jameis got to number 2, number 3 and one time all the way to

the season has gone on it's just led to repetitions and all the situations you've seen during games eventually it's going to click. >> it wasn't that many weeks ago we were 25th in the lead in third down conversions we're all the way up to 10. we've had our best three third down conversion games last three weeks. >> defensively they did it again. that's two games in a row. i asked some guys in the locker room i said listen you guys tv for a couple weeks. >> they are still mad at a. it's all personal. no personal but they got their due the past two games for sure because of the way they played. >> great to sorry. great to see these guys they have really responded since the bye week with smith he and the defensive staff asking them to do. and then the play of the game the single play of the game they are down there what to score points might be a touchdown maybe a field goal for sure. gerald gets a finger on it. chris connie makes a beautiful

>> 5-25. you guys have correct corrected some things. turned it around here in a manner of a couple of weeks. >> well, we were 1-0 last week we're trying to be 1-0 this week. i think in my short year and-a- half in tampa i've found is it's not wise for us to start thinking about anything else except who we play this week and what gives us the best chance to compete. and so thanksgiving week we got a lot to be thankful for. i know we're going to we're going to make it tough on seattle and we're going to try to play as well at home as we played on the road last week. >> don't forget wfla.com tonight full version. he was in a great mood day obviously. can the lightning go 5-0 on this road trip? we're going to find out tonight. they have in nashville. tough one. >> without a star player. >> that's correct. >> don't go anywhere nbc nightly news is coming up next. >> news channel 8 at 7:00 is

tonight at 11:00. good night. is this enough? a little more... grandma! there you go... there's no more room. oh look who's here! i know i had one more... hmmm... more. how's it looking? 20 more minutes... 8, 9... we need 1 more

we need more rolls there was a little girl, and she became friends with every animal she met. it's getting late, grandma should go. one more? in the end, all we really need more of, is each other. happy thanksgiving from publix.

breaking news tonight. school bus horror. several students killed, many injured, when the bus slammed into a house and wrapped around a tree, splitting it in half. we have a late report. manhunt for a police officer ambushed and assassinated, a deadly stretch for law enforcement. four officers shot across three states in just 24 hours. holiday week storm blanketing a big part of the country threatening to make a travel nightmare for billions. beating black friday, skipping the crowds but not the savings. how knows those in the know are already getting big deals right now. and glory days, our monday inspiring america. the 55-year-old father