that is the fear one 7 on your side is experiencing, so he shared his story with horace holmes. he has important lessons on how to keep this from happening to you. >> kohls card, macy's card, walmart card. horace: this is william cooper's >> letters from the v.a. and irs. horace: his i did a has been stolen so many times he to see she keeps checking to see if he is william cooper. it started in baltimore with emergency surgery a couple years ago. >> my information was taken from my drivers license. horace: his identity was stolen >> somebody filed a tax return in my name and my wife's name. horace: this is the attorney general of the state of maryland. >> if somebody can steal the identity of the attorney general, they can steal your i.d. horace: in d.c. alone, 57% of residents have had their identity stolen, your permission in cyberspace waiting for someone to exploit it. getting out of dealing drugs and going into identity fraud. horace: william cooper's identity was stolen after an organized crime gang, opening up credit accounts in new york and southern connecticut. after he

dollars and the victims' families and the rest of sus to pay for it. "7 on your side" troubleshooter horace holmes explains this in part of the ongoing secure i.d. day. horace: 3-year-old lowie hammond was the apple of her parent's eye. they knew they had a shorttime with the little angel in january of 2014. >> she passed away in my lap. horace: she succumb to a shock overtook the family. then news arrive that came as a punch to the gut. >> someone stole her identity and received a refund in her name. >> a tax return filed using her name, birth date and social security number. the information they believe lifted from her obituary. her social security number anyone at that time could have discovered by paying $10 to look at the social security administration's death master million deceased people whose identity is stolen every year. >> it's horrible. horace: at a huge expense and complicated problem according to the top law enforcement officials like the president attorney general brian frosh. >> the person who passed away is defenseless, so is the family. we can go after the folks but it is hard t

horace: horace holmes, abc 7 news. alison: so frustrating. fios is not cable. we're wired differently. so we wired the wagner's house th 100 meg internet. which means in the time it takes mr. wagner to pour a 20 oz. cup of coffee, tommy can download 30 songs, and jan can upload 120 photos. 12 seconds. that's the power of fiber optics. this is your last chance to get super fast 100meg internet, tv and phone for just $69.99 per month online. this is your final week to get this great deal. only from fios. jonathan: if you need help, you can reach out. alison: 866-236-2401. you can also e-mail tips at wjla.com. and you can always call into one of our phone banks. lawyers, alternate answer your questions, all for free in the help center. jonathan: if you find yourself frustrated and need help, now you know where to turn. have a nice evening, and >> dicky: from hollywood it's "jimmy kimmel live"! tonight jake gyllenhaal hailee steinfeld the results of our youtube halloween challenge, and music from keith urban. and now, you know him you love him, here's jimmy kimmel!

horace holmes explains how this happened to one of our viewers. he has an important warning for parents and vital information to prevent this from happening to you. horace: aaron is a normal 11-year-old boys and like most 11-year-old boys -- >> giant boulder. number one strategy of the game. horace holmes he loves video games. download the free game app she didn't know it would wind up caused her to debt -- >> depressed. i had crying jags, i was breaking out in hives, i had anxiety attacks. horace: this simple game landed her with a whopping bill. >> almost $13,000. horace: it started on a weekend at home when aaron was recovering from a cold. >> they let him go on the tablet. said that's all right. they got a call from the credit card provider asking if they charged hundreds of dollars to a google play account. she told them no and the card company wiped out the charges so she figured the company -- >> would block further charges from google but they didn't. horace: without her knowledge, aaron opened her own google account and in the next three o

horace holmes is live to explain the riddle. horace: this is going to be very cool and a nice service for everyone in the area. this is the big projector we are using. we are setting it up right now and running tests. it will p results throughout the evening. we are half a block from iwo jima, across fairfax, across fort meyers, over to the 1000 wilson boulevard building. throughout the night as soon as we start to get results we will project them to the side of the building. 110 feet high. 200 feet wide. ten stories on the 1000 block building all night long. the election results as they come in. get more votes. the results will be up there to take a look at. we will have the results on abc7 and results up there. we have you covered. reporting live in arlington, horace holmes, abc7 news. back to you. maureen: we are everywhere. thank you so much. tonight join jonathan and the abc7 vote 2016 election team as they talk to voters across the country. making final decisions before going to "your voice, your future" special report on n

autria: horace holmes has one final trick up his sleeves. our pets, we don't always love the breath. in all five -- in our final installment of smart shoppers this week, i will show you how easy it is to save hundreds of dollars getting his teeth's pick and span. autria: all right, i'm out. the president-elect, narrowing down his cabinet. plus a power challenge happening autria: covering metro for you this morning, the transit agency making emergency safety moves. larry: cars pulled from service without warning because they were putting your risk. suzanne? suzanne: good morning to you, larry and autria. metro says that this is a small problem but it is a risk they are not willing to take these cars have been in circulation since 1991. they are 7% of the system's 1200 cars. metro began removing them yesterday afternoon. here's the problem, when used as lead cars there is the potential that the speed command could be wrong, leading to the trains going undetected i the automatic train control system, which could lead to a crash. the 4000 series

horace holmes joins us to tell more. wanted to thank everyone who e-mailed and wanted to participate. this was an exercise in the power of comparison shopping. we chose five families and their projects and the consumer check book group did all the shopping. all this week we will bring you their stories. first, a homeowner who had a hard time keeping things from being short-circuited in her home. with overloading. she has had it for years. every time she uses the oven while doing the laundry, the circuits overload. the electricity leaves the building, sending her to the panel to try to flip it back on. [laughter] >> whenever you try to do something, you can't walk away. >> a real pain in the neck? you bet. she says that after 10 years of dealing with it and consulting electricians? 2006, $800. 2010, $1895 for the same job. >> offering viewers a chance for a consumer check look to shock local contractors for the best price. >> i saw that use all problems. >> we center to consumers the lowest was 565 dollars. the highest wa

horace holmes has a look at the stakes on the hill tonight. horace: overlooking a beautiful sight of the capitol behind us. the balance of power is in swing. will it go democrat or republican? in the house and the senate. this is the electoral map. it's clear now as the polls close the votes come in and the states are declared we can turn it from blue to red, blue to red, whichever way we need to go. 270 electoral votes will determine the united states internet the house, 435 seats are up for grabs it's a tam order for te if they can turn five seats blue, then the count in the senate is 50/50. and the determining vote on the measures going forward would be in the hands of the new vice president of the three states we're watching is north carolina, florida, pennsylvania. polls close at 7:30/8:00 for north carolina. florida and pennsylvania if secretary clinton wins the three states it's probably an early everything. results all night long at wjla.com. do you remember the deez nuts? larry: i'm disappointed he didn't make it. alison: this race is

like we used to have or the flip phones or even the older cell phones anyone can be a victim as horace holmes reports. >> a macy's card and they bought a $1200 television there. horace: this is william cooper i.d. theft notebook. horace: his identity has been stolen so many times he facetiously checks to see if he is still cooper. >> my information taken from the driver's license, they opened >> they were looking for a refund. horace: who is this? the attorney general of the state of maryland. >> the point is if somebody can steal the identity of the attorney general, they can steel your identity. horace: your information could be floating around in cyber space waiting for someone to exploit it. who could it be? >> drug gang getting out of >> police told william cooper his i.d. was stolen by organizedded crime gang after they discover who had was using his identity to open up credit cards in stores in connecticut. later after he filed taxes he learned the thieves filed taxes in his name and had even opened up a business. >> made up a name, computer computers. they wrote off the fraudulent los

horace: horace holmes here in the "7 on your side" center. 703-236-9220. all week we have been teaching you how to be a good shopper. consumer checkbook rate contractors. if you want more information you can click on wjla.com. at the top of the page. consumers checkbook to call them now. back to you. jonathan: november is national adoption month. today nine children were adopted by the forever families. amy aubert was in the courtroom for the emotional ceremony. [applause] amy: it's all about that moment. >> just for them to say their full name. their full nam amy: they officially added two to the family on friday. >> the amount added to the family, we are grate to feel have them part of our life. >> 8-year-old david and 3-year-old jay for three and a half years, they cared for them. now to boys are taking on a new last name. >> it's overwhelming. adoptions going through montgomery county friday. >> we know where we are going. we are doing it as a family. it is overwhelming. happy and amazing to see there are happy endings. >> a celebration in courtroom wi

horace: i'm horace holmes. if you have a home improvement project or major deals to pay for, coming up we have the thing for you. folks from the consumers checkbook to elteach you how to be a smart shopper. they are here to answer your calls. we'll be here to talk at it more. jonathan: one more time. back out to the knuckle head file of the day. remember the folk in claire? this guy decided to drive through it. it has chemicals in it. you have a bath in your future. they have a whole hangar where something malfunction and the hang gar filled one four to five feet of phone. horace: live in the help center. 703-236-9220 is the number to call. we're with the folks from consumers checkbook. we teamed up with them for smart shoppers week. if you have a major project at home, these folks are here to help answer questions. you need an electrician or someone to do renovation in your house, take down a tree. even dog teeth cleaning. we helped a viewer with that earlier in the week. give them a call at 703-236-9220. they

horace holmes important information on how to protect your package and possibly catch a thief. horace: this person in his family have a problem, this guy captured on his home security torso and his face. horace: they are not alone. 23 million people across the country fall victim to package the. over eight years, they have lived in this georgetown neighborhood. >> one out of every six packages are stolen. horace: package theft is so bad on his block -- >> we have had a problem since we have lived here. horace: his neighbors except it is a way of life. perfect solution. even with the camera visible again place and the ability to watch his front door anywhere, thefts have not stopped. >> in a sophisticated criminal would have done some kind of surveillance work. horace: they say that moche package the use know there are cameras watching but just don't care. >> the obviously are not concerned. horace: brazen. and just a couple weeks ago, they fell victim again. minutes later, this man showed up. watch as he picks up the package and coldly walks off. he and his family were the livin

horace holmes has put together a special report that you have to see. one local mother opened her credit card bill to find more than $10,000 in charges for a videogame app. it turns out it was her 11 consent. she contacted her credit card company and tried to explain. >> they said we are going to reverse the charges, and i thought that was great. then they changed their minds. doug: believe it or not -- jummy: believe it or not, this type of thing happens all the time. horace will show you how this family dealt with problem. you love all-day breakfast. but you don't love that you can't get all your favorites. but now you can get more of what you love. so you can find something else to not love. like hearing the sound of your own voice. (softly) like hearing the sound of your own voice. get more choices you love, now with all day breakfast. jummy: we are all talking about the weather and the super moon. doug: i do not think we will see a tonight because of the clouds moving in and the rain. we will have more showers through the evening hours. it will sta

horace holmes introduces us to an arlington woman believes money was swiped off the gift card before it was even in her hands. prevent it from happening to you. horace: she had no idea when she and her family purchased $4400 for kitchen appliances. she was caught in the middle of a battle. with best buy, the company where they purchased the appliances. >> the products are great. we ordered them from best buy because they had a special $400 best buy gift card. horace: within days she received this gift card in the mail. perfect. she would use the money to buy other items in the kitchen. the problem is what you went to best buy to redeem the car -- >> there was $10 on the card. horace: she called best buy to find out what happened and gave the company the account number on the card. the representative told her the card was used at one of its stores in columbus, georgia, 750 miles card she received was in transit with the u.s. postal service to her house. she was told the card was used again at the same georgia store a few days later to buy dvd's. when she reported this to best buy -- >>

horace holmes, abc 7 news. jonathan: at is why you comparison shop. if you would like to learn how you can save big, go to wjla.com jonathan: we end with a big an investigation into shoddy new-home construction, builders leaving new homeowners with homes falling apart. we had a nationwide investigation in partnership with abc news. we want to see what these homeowners were putting up with come including one house in charles county, maryland, that experts say were majorly defective. all of the owners were out of luck because of the wording of their contracts. >> nail pops, paint issues, issues with the flooring, the tiles, cracked tub and cabinets, damaged casings, doors coming apart. alison: after contacting the builders of four homes with multiple problems, 7 on your side got promises from the contractors that they would come back and take care of the issues despite the fact warranties had said everything has already been fixed. jonathan: great news. that's the best part, results like that. you can always call if you need help, reach out. you can alw

how about those who are going to buy and recve tonight at 11:00 the troubleshooter horace holmes will tell us how to protect ourselves from the big gift card surprise. every year at this time, millions of the dollars stolen. how an arlingtonroom's right to get back what is hers. card cloning and the story you will see tonight at 11:00. a minute ago i said the word doug: we could have flurries. you said doug hill said flurries or more. i don't think that's what i said. jonathan: i read it right here. doug: in the mountains. snowshowers. maybe enough to whiten the ground. in the metro area only a few flurries is what we said and expect around the area. this is a time lapse from washington park. drab start to the day. headed through the mid-morning the ski mild, too, with the temperatures reaching in the 60's. one of those days where it was well above average by eight degrees. 66 at reagan national. the average is only 58 degrees. we are going to have a warm-up. it is kind of that roller coaster thing where we will get warm in the end of the week and the bottom falls out saturday and sun

we look at the map from the capitol hill bureau with horace holmes. horace: i'm spending the night with the pad and pen counting votes. electoral votes for the presidential race. the map now is clean because the first polls aren't closing until 7:00. we will be adding up as the winners declare in each state the next president of the united states. we will take a look at the balance of power in congress. house of representatives all seats up for grabs. the interesting race is in the senate. where there are 34 senate seats that are up for election today. the democrats have ten seats. ten of the blue seats they have to defend. the republicans, 24. the important numbers are five and 50. if the democrats can swing five of these blue, the count is 50/50 and the tie would be broken by the new vice president of the united states. a very important night. alison: it's the race for the white house. michelle: it's also the race to vote. alison: throughout the day hot spots have seen the lines stretch for blocks. brianne carter is out and about in falls church. see

several weeks ago we asked you if you were planning a big "7 on your side" troubleshooter horace holmes joins us again. today you find a way to save on windows. tell us about it. horace: that is correct, alison starling. we did this to show you power of comparison shoppings. we chose five families and the project and consumer checkbook in d.c. did shopping. today we see if we can help about the major expense of window replacement. after 19 years, jim mccounsel and john mentis still love their home, a slice of the country in the middle of the city they say. they love the view outside of their windows. they just don't love the windows. >> the locks started breaking. the mechanism to tilt windows in started breaking. if it's really windy they whistle. >> then the noise. >> we have ten lanes of traffic. horace: from 18 companies from $8,000 to $8,946. >> the lowest bid is $10,000 less than what they paid for the windows two decades ago. >> you think? two decades ago they paid $18,000 and now they can get $9,000 to get it done. that is what it is all about. shopping around to see the bids. t

horace holmes joins us with today's project. what are you working on? horace: we are going to be checking out a leaky roof that is going to be an expensive fix. in this case they are putting up -- they have been putting it off for a few years. when they teamed up with consumer check out to help them find the best price, they jumped than a solid roof over your head. >> we have had leakage because of the shingles blowing off the roof. horace: it's been many years since she hasn't warned about -- hasn't worried about what's coming from the outside coming into her home. >> i've had it repaired three times and it hasn't been sufficient. horace: consumers checkbook did the shopping for the best price to eight roofing companies. they are all companies that met standards from their monthly periodical. >> really good companies are just as laos -- just as likely to give you a good price as the lousy companies. horace: she was shocked. that's an 11,000 dollar savings. that's the power of comparison shopping. >> i have had some horrible, horrible experiences with co

horace holmes joins us now. you found a way to save on windows? comparison-shopping. the consumers checkbook did all of the shopping, located right here in washington. today we see if we can help some local homeowners very worried about the major expense -- and this is a big expense most of the time -- of window replacement. >> after 19 years, they still love their arlington home. a slice of the country right in the middle of the city, they say windows. >> the locks started breaking. the mechanisms to tilt the windows in started breaking. they don't even close well. when it's windy, the windows whistle. and then, there's the noise. >> we have 10 lanes of traffic out there. the noise is a big issue. >> time to get new windows. >> they paid $18,000 nearly 20 years ago for these much more for new ones. when they learned about the 7 on your side offer to do comparison shopping our viewers with big home projects, they jumped on the offer. consumers checkbook, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, did the shopping. >> 18 different companies that they researched, we are excit

horace holmes is live outside the arlington studios to explain. horace: this is neat. you will like it. i'm on freedom plaza outside the studios. we have a big projector over here if you go all the way around about half a block from iwo jima. the guys are there now. tomorrow night, the election results start coming in we will be projecting those results up on the side of this building 1000 wilson out right now throughout the evening. as the results come in, as they change, they will appear up there on the top of the building. you can see that for as far as you can see the top of the 1000 building here in rosslyn. this is neat and a service for all of you in the area to come look at this. if you live several miles away you can probably see the results projected on the side of the building in arlington. that is tune in tomorrow. come and you can see the results on the side of the building. alison: i can't wait to see that. very cool. abc7 is on your side for the election. the team of reporters will be spread across the area to give you unprecedented coverage. coverage be

in the newsroom, horace holmes, abc7 news. larry: thursday redskins-cowboys game doesn't need extra hype. but today the players may have given the team from dallas so-called bulletin board material. >> it's far from the average day. with the help of these gentlemen we will explain why >> tomorrow on "good morning washington" we zero in on the hottest holiday gifts to see which is worth the cold cash. >> deep holiday discount coupons. too good to be true? "7 on your side" with why you should take a closer look at the fine print. >> it's "good morning washington" happy holiday hour. the seven lucky winners will get the like friday bucks with us for traffic and weather every ten minutes on michelle: kids like to play dressup but if you're at the hospital it's not that easy. jeff goldberg went to the inova fairfax hospital today where they had a medieval time. jeff: at medieval time at the mall, they rule the kingdom. but here, the kids are royalty. >> do you feel well enough for a visit from the king? >> king c group around the i

troubleshooter horace holmes joins us and you found a way to save a viewer big bucks for their tree troubles. horace: big money for a big tree. i had no idea how much it cost to take down a trim or even trim one. it costs thousands of dollars. all the more reason to get the right bid at just the right price. we did just that. for the viewer from alexandria with the help of consumers checkbook. loved the quaint alexandria home for the 21 years they have lived here. when they moved in, this tree in their backyard -- >> started as a little thing. >> but. >> as it started growing up, it started growing sideways. horace: now they think it is ready to fall. >> i'm afraid it will take out the shed. horace: other trees in yard knee limbs chopped off. so they heard about us offering to help homeowners >> checkbook helps people find top service in the quality of work, they do great work and help identify places that also offer low prices. horace: so consumers checkbook went to work, calling tree care experts. setting up apointments for mcnulty and taking bids. they shopped ten companies. >> there is a

troubleshooter horace holmes brings us a story of the arlington woman shocked when she received a near empty card and her fight to get the money due her. card cloning, important information on what you can do michelle: next on "abc7 news at 4:00" -- the expansion of hope in northeast d.c. i'm kellye lynn to take you to the new campus after an adult public cha fios is not cable. we're wired differently. that means incredibly fast 150 g internet for the holidays. in the 3.7 seconds it takes we're wired differently. gary watson to beat the local sled jump record, fly, gary, fly. ...while his mom downloads how to set a dislocated shoulder. get 150 meg internet with equal upload and download speeds, tv and phone for this amazing price. cable can't offer speeds jonathan: more than 20% of working adults in d.c. do not have a diploma. we go to an adult public tackle that problem. kellye: many are parents or grand parents getting back to the education they left behind. >> 67 years old and i'm getting ready to get my high school diploma. i'm happy about it. kellye: after dropping out of school i

response was overwhelming. "7 on your side" troubleshooter horace holmes joins us to tell us how it turned out. ho this was an exercise to show power of comparison shopping. we chose five families and their projects a and the national non-profit group consumer checkbook located in d.c. did the shopping. this week we will bring you stories of the five families. first a homeowner who had a hard time from keeping things getting short circuited in her home. elvis shields has a problem overloading and she has had it for years. every time she uses the oven >> the breaker would switch. horace: the circuit overloads and elvis' electricity leads the building. sending her to the family to turn it back on. >> a pain? >> it is. every time you try to do something you can't walk away. horace: a pain in the neck? you bet. but after ten years of dealing with it and consulting electricians -- >> it started in 2006. it was $800. by 2010, job. they all said the panel needs to be replaced. horace: she heard abc7 was giving them a chance to find the best price, she jumped on it. >> i look at "7 on your side" a

horace holmes telling us that story. this is not just a victimless crime. >> it just adds extra salt in the wound for anyone who lost a loved one, especially for a child. jonathan: heart breaking. shocked by where the identity thieves operate. we have found out where and alison: we all know the middle school years can be among the most challenging as the children cope with the issues like self-esteem and peer pressure. in today's "spotlight on the challenges with the support of an unusual partner ship. >> i will be trustworthy. >> in words. >> and in my actions. kellye: these sixth graders at thomas johnson middle school are committed to the highest standard. >> i pledge to always be fair. >> i pledge to always be fair. kellye: but they didn't get to this point on their own. >> you never give up on who you are because somebody else wants you to. the program is all about having the young cadets and self-confidence. >> it's teaching us to be respectful and responsible. kellye: characteristics sharped by the sheriff positiv