melanie woodrow. >> sophisticated? crazy, unbelievable. >>> to christmas in the park, to talk to children about holiday wishes. >> predictably sweet and brutally honest. >> one of my christmas wishes is hope my family will have a very nice christmas. >> one of my christmas wishes is that we -- it's more peaceful here. >> i want new ugg boots. >> some things for my new puppy. >> my christmas wish is for me to get all the video games in the world to play overnight and never have to watch dumb news. >> what did he say? i hope his parents aren't watching right now. >> he didn't mean it. cute stuff. >>> something we've come to expect as warriors fans, blockbuster matchup of dubs dynas dynasty against another heavyweight. >> this is different this year, going through rough patch, injuries to klay thompson and steph curry. >> but a chance for christmas upset against one of their most bitter rivals. >> young warriors go against james harden and the houston rockets on national tv, 2:00 p.m. on abc7. >>> for those tracking santa

now employees are sharing security video with employees and with abc 7 news reporter melanie woodrow. >> reporter: thousands of dollars worth stolen. sophisticated shoplifters managed to get past employees at several stores this month saying they were visiting fro paris. in the surveillance video you can see them stuffing jackets worth thousands under their outer wear. >> the pros are so good they can do it in front of you and you would never know you were being picked. >> reporter: no masks with, no smash and grab. the crooks according to employees were actually quite engaging. employees couldn't tell anything was missing until they were gone. >> it does make me ill. >> reporter: the next day two of the three hit up sweden spart which sells vintage jewelry, purses and scarves it procures from estate sales. >> we've never had an issue in the past. >> reporter: as this woman looked at scarves. >> she like held up a bunch of them in front of like my coworkers face. >> reporter: the man snatched a rare vintage pink chanel purse and stuffed it up his jacket. this is picture of the handbag

melanie woodrow, abc7 news. >> okay. so let's look at the results from abc7news.com/vote. you can see on the bottom of your screen, should passengers be notified if an animal is going to be on the flight? right now 92% of people say yes, where 8% are saying no. melanie tweeted an online poll. so far 64% of those say they would want to know ahead of time. >> interesting. >>> two bay area hospitals make a national top 20 list, and we'll see new food labels designed to give us the full picture. 7 on your side's michael finney is here with those stories tonight. michael? >> eating better is going to be just a little bit easier to pull off now. new fda rules require nutritional labels to be a bit more specific. from now on, many packaged goods will have to say not just how many calories per servings and how many serving per package, but how many calories in the entire package. that's important because many times you take a quick glance and do not get the full picture. for instance, take this little bag of macaroons. a quick glance shows you the calorie count is 170, but there a

in vallejo, melanie woodrow, abc7 news. >> four people were shot tonight during a holiday party at a home on 34th avenue near foothill boulevard in oakland. police say three men and a woman were wounded. one seriously. police are not releasing any further details at this moment. >>> new developments tonight, the man accused in the stabbing death of clayton beathard, the younger brother of 49ers quarterback c.j. beathard has been arrested. nashville police say 23-year-old michael mosely surrendered at a vacant home after it was surrounded by police. he fatally stabbed clayton beathard and another man outside a nashville bar. >>> a vacant home in oakland where a group of homeless mothers are fighting to stay put, against the property owner's wishes, the group, moms for housing say they moved in the magnolia street home with their children last month to draw attention to the bay area homeless crisis. we've been reporting on this extensively. they will be in alameda county court tomorrow to challenge an eviction order they were given. the real estate firm wedge wood owns the property and

melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. >> okay. so let's look at the results from abc7news.com/vote. they're on the bottom of your screen. >> 85% of the people, 84 now, say yes, passengers should be notified, which makes sense. you want to know. >> 15% saying no. >>> part of building a better bay area includes making public transit more reliable and accessible. that's what vta is trying to do in the south bay and this is the first work day for passengers to try it out for free. changes took effect over the weekend on saturday. vta increased the frequency of service along 20 of its most popular bus routes and added a new light rail line, the orange line, between allen rock and downtown mountain view. to get people used to the changes, vta is offering free rides through tomorrow night. regular prices resume on wednesday, january 1st. >>> the new year means some changes to bay area transit agencies, from pricing to scheduling. we have put together a list of all upcoming changes. it's on our website, check that out when you have a moment. abc7news.com. >>> b.a.r.t. has launched a new eff

melanie woodrow has more. >> reporter: this warehouse at weston and appgarr has been citing for housing and building and zoning violations that must be corrected. the city wants to hear from the property owner. overnight flames ripped through the building. hre is the damage from drone view 7. eight people escaped the fire. one was treated for minor burns. no one should have been inside. just a week and a half ago neighbors met with councilman to express concerns. >> some had to do with the warehouse here and people appropriately living in the warehouse. >> reporter: the property was red tagged in april of 2019 and then again on november 28th according to the oakland fire department. that is when 20 people living inside were removed from the building. which is not suitable for living. tenant michael prince said the owner john favors told people to come back after a couple of hours. >> he was charging $10 a night for people to sleep on that couch right there and that couch right there. >> and the owner has been, to put it nicely, less than cooperative in keeping people out of the building

melanie woodrow is live in union square where some of those items are believed to have been stolen. >> reporter: the stolen goods believed to have come from retail thefts, package thefts, and of course in san francisco car break innens. listen to one way criminals were going about this. they were taking stolen cell phones and wrapping them in aluminum foil to thwart the signal that the cell phones would give off detection. it didn't work. this is just a sample of more than $2 million worth of stolen stuff san francisco law enforcement agents recovered in operation focus lens. >> it breaks your heart. >> reporter: heartbreaking because nearly all of it belongs to someone. >> just the way rely on digital devices now having a lot of our personal things on there, having that taken away just is devastating. >> reporter: no el knows the feeling. she's had her phone stolen twice. now -- >> i just tuck it up in here. it usually works really well. no one can get close enough to me to get my phone and if they do, i will kick them. >> reporter: operation focus lens is unprecedented in terms of t

in vallejo, melanie woodrow, abc7 news. >>> a man is dead after being hit by a fallen tree. this happened on the trail in mur woir woods. officials say the fallen tree hit four other trees causing debris to hit two hikers. a 29-year-old man was killed. the second man suffered minor injuries. the national park service closed a portion of the trail to clean up the debris yesterday. >>> a mill valley says they were lucky nobody was hurt when lightning hit a tree and split it in half. lightning hit the 100-foot tall redwood on water view drive early yesterday morning. piece ps s of it scattering on roof of a house, a car and power pole. no one was hurt but a family had to evacuate because first responders were worried the damaged tree could collapse on to their home. >> we heard a big boom. tremendous noise. santa was a little loud, that's okay. everybody is safe. everything can be repaired. >> the family was let back in after a few hours. >>> new this morning a report says shoring up san francisco's ocean beach will cost at least 6 $60 million more than previously thought. the

. >> melanie woodrow has a story you'll see only on abc7. >> newly engaged vanessa couldn't wait they in indianapolis. but when the couple arrived, they discovered their bags did not. >> i was in hysteria. i started crying. >> united airlines offered to have a third party called where's my suitcase deliver their belongs. >> 60% of my belongs were gone including my most valuable like bu burberry trench coach and rain boots. >> including all the christmas gifts for her fiance's family. >> it was heartbreaking. i felt terrible to come here with nothing to give them for christmas. >> her fiance's bag was missing $300 to $400 worth of items. the couple went to indianapolis international airport to speak to united reps directly. >> one of my reps told me i shouldn't have packed such nice things in my luggage to have avoided this. >> she posted the story to facebook with which her fellow colleague lauren saw. abc7 news interviewed her in october when delta airlines used roadie to deliver her lost bags. her items were also missing. delta ultimately reimburse herd $5,000. >> we kind of starte

. >> melanie woodrow is live in union square where some of the items are believed to have been stolen. melanie. >> reporter: that's right. this is retail theft, package theft, and of course in san francisco car break ins. here's one of the things that these criminals were supposedly doing. they were taking stolen cell phones and then wrapping them in alumin aluminum foil in an attempt to block the signal and avoid detection. that didn't work. tables of electronics, home care items, and womens' hand bags all stolen according to sfpd and all now recovered from law enforcement. operation focus lens disrupted a large scale pence fencing operation. the total price tag of the items, more than $2 million. >> it breaks your heart. >> heartbreaking because nearly all of it belongs to someone. >> just the way that rely on digital devices now having a lot of our personal things on there, having that taken away just is devastating. >> noel knows the feeling.ng. she's had her phone stolen twice. now. >> i can just tuck it up in here. no one can get close enough to me to get my phone and if they do

in vallejo, melanie woodrow, abc7 news. >>> the man accused of stabbing the younger brother of cj besthard is expected to be in court tomorrow. police say he fatally stabbed 22 clayton betheard outside a bar saturday morning. mosely is being held without bail. >>> in the north bay a man is dead after being hit by a fallen tree. officials say the fallen tree hit four other trees causing debris to hit two hikers. a 29-year-old man was killed. the second man suffered minor injuries. the national park service closed a portion of the trail to clean up the debris yesterday. >>> a bolt of lightning splintered this 100 foot tree in mill valley causing a family to evacuate early christmas morning. it split the tree into two. the fire department feared what was left would fall on to a home below. lauren martinez has a story you'll see only on 7. >> it was like a bomb went off. it was right behind the house. >> reporter: residents of water view drive in mill valley were woken up just after 4:00 christmas morn when a strong force of lightning split this redwood tree. >> it exploded into shards where i

melanie woodrow is live in union square where some of those items are believed to have been stolen. > have come from retail thefts, package thefts, and of course in san francisco car break innens. listen to one way criminals were going about this. they were taking stolen cell phones and wrapping them in aluminumoi

police are sharing video with police and melanie woodrow. >> reporter: thousands worth of clothing and handbags stolen. >> i've had shoplifters before but not as good as this time. >> shoplifters said they are visiting from paris. they're stuffing jackets worth thousands under their outerwear. >> the pros are so good. they can do it in front of you and you'd never know you were being picked. >> the crooks according to employees were quite engaging. employees couldn't tell anything was missing until they were gone. >> it does make me ill. >> the next day two of the three hit up sweden spark, which sells vintage jewelry, scarfing from estate sales. >> we've never had an issue in the past. >> as this woman looked at scarves, she held up a bunch of them in front of my co-worker's face. >> the rare snatched a rare $6,800 purse and stuffed it up his jacket. this is a picture of the handbachan handbag. >> he actually shook my co-worker's hand when he left. >> reporter: police are vebting whether the people in both videos are the same. san francisco police say that since the end of november, t

in san francisco, melanie woodrow, abc 7 news. >>> an iranian refugee who founded a bay area tech firm has cleared the remaining lunch debt for hundreds of oakland residents. one planet ceo donated over $15,000 to the oakland unified school district. he says he was not allowed to go to school in iran because of his religion. he says if students do not have access to a meal, then they have full access to their education. without that meal, they don't have that kind of access. >> what a big heart he has. >>> still to come on abc 7 news at 6:00, president trump lashes out at speaker of the house nancy pelosi right after wishing overseas troops a merry christmas. >>> plus, christmas chaos. the last-minute push to get everything done before that big day. >>> and a concord home is getting quite the reputation. how it's using the force to draw a crowd. . >>> he just left brazil and he's on his way to canada. it's getting close. we expect him to be on the east coast somewhere between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. we'll keep an eye on that. more after ♪the beat goes onp for heart failure look like? it loo

melanie woodrow spoke with them today. >> reporter: in anticipation of the new law going into effectfiled a lawsuit against the diocese of oakland christian brothers congregation of holy cross and morrow catholic high school. he hopes his story will inspire others to speak their truth. it's been more than 40 years since george howell says he was sexually abused by two morrow catholic clergymen in hayward. >> there's a lot of questions you ask yourself, a lot of fear that comes with it. if you speak out are you going to be discredited? are they going to try to slur you? there's a lot involved in it mentally before you decide -- before i decided that i needed to deal with it. >> reporter: howell breaking his silee now in part because of a new law. it creates a one-time three-year window for child sexual abuse victims to bring a lawsuit against their perpetrators no matter how much time has passed. the three-year window closes at the end of 2022. thereafter the law enables child sexual abuse victims to file lawsuits until their 40th birthday. previously they had until they were 26 years

melanie woodrow has the story you will only see on 7. >> reporter: newly engaged janessa couldn't wait to spend christmas with her fiance's family in indianapolis. when they arrived, they discovered their bags did not. united airlines opted to have a third party vendor deliver the bags to mendez. >> i realized 60% of my belongings were gone, including my most valuable items. >> more than $4,000 worth of belongings missing including all the christmas gifts for her fiance's family. her fiance's bag was also missing, 3,000 -- 300 to $400 worth of items. the couple went to indianapolis international airport to speak to the reps directly. mandance posted the story to facebook. abc 7 news interviewed dell bar toe in october when delta airlines used an app to deliver her lost bags. her items were missing. delta reimbursed her $5,000. >> we thought this might be happening quickly with services. >> united tells abc 7 news we are investigating the situation and our customer care team is reaching out to our customer to learn more. where's my suitcase writes, quote, as united airlines investigates