Benning in wissinoming around 11 30 last night. Once he was freed from the burning call he was able to tell officers was abducted by three men driving a black did you do dee with tinted windows. At which time he was approached by three males who point of gun abducted him put him in the back of his car zip tied him drove him around for the next several hoursism they ended up in olney where the suspects doused the victim with gasoline and lit his vehicle on fire. During all that time they were driving around, police say the suspects were using the victims phone calling and texting repeatedly to demand ransom from his family. We did learn that a Family Member did begin toe messages from our victims phone from the people that abducted him demanding 10,00 now, this went on for at least five hours until at 5 42 police were called to west ford road. Reporter Police Emphasize they dont think this was random although they were unable to say this afternoon why at this point they think this victim was targeted. They are interviewing his Family Members. He did suffer second and third degree burns over 50 percent of his body and remains in critical condition. Hes been unable to speak with authorities again since hes been hospitalized. Live in hunting park, im Sarah Bloomquist channel6 action news. Jim. Thank you, sarah. Emergency crews remain on the scene of a crash involving a school bus in gloucester county. The accident happened at 4 30 at the intersection of tuckahoe and glassboro roads in monroe township. Fortunately no students were on board but there have been some injuries. You should check in with 6abc. Com for updates throughout the evening. We keep telling you how serious the flu season is this year and here isew numbers out out of delaware that serve to prove the report. Health reporter and registered nurse ali gorman joins us live. Ali have you ever seen a flu epidemic quite this bad. Jim, were going to have to wait until the end of the season to see how it all plays out but i can tell you by the numbers it is especially bad season and a very long season. Now, in delaware from the start of the season up until february 3rd, there have been nearly 3rm cases and take a look at 995 ofhose in the last week. Now, thats a state record for delaware. There have also been six deaths of older adults that same week and nationwide it has been a similar scene. Flu season is raging across the country and in some cases, its causing serious problems. Crystal whitley a 35yearold mother in texas is now fighting for her life. Shes making all this progress but they keep telling us she is still very ill. Shes Still Critical and she is still on an obstacle course. Whitley caught both a and b strains of the flu then pneumonia plus mrsa a bacterial infection resistant to antibiotics. Shes one of more than 17,000 people hospitalized for the flu this season. More than 60 children have died. The predominant a strain, h3n2 is known to be fierce and the vaccine isnt very effective against it. But cdc officials now say the b strain flu virus is also now going around. Earlier than usual. And it means you could get sick twice. You can definitele flu twice in one season. There because theres different strains ing around or different sub types going around. Reporter thats another reason the flu shot is still recommended if you havent gotten one yet this season. Some Research Also shows even if they cant 100 percent prevent the flu it can help prevent serious complications. There is still flu vaccine available. You can find this link on our web site to help up find some vaccines and just a ause the fli expect around at high levels for several more weeks, to ep ngs yo hands frequently, disinfect those common surfaces and if you are sick, you want to stay home. Now, any severe or worsening symptoms or di breathing, those are signs that you have to get to the doctor. Jim. Ali i have read that six of 10 fatalities in delaware since the beginning of the epidemic were with people who did get the vaccine but that shouldnt lead people to think they shouldnt be vaccinatedcor. No, they should still get the vaccine. The thing with the vaccine is it is not as effective against that h3n2 but what they do fiit prevent some complitions. Were that some of the deaths people had underlying elder conditions, unfortunately the vaccine doesnt always work. But it can help prevent thosesee flu. And also now that were seeing the b strain go around thats another reason why people do want to go out and get the vaccine so they dont end up getting hit wit flu twice this season. Important information. Activists says the federal government will stop paying transitional shelter assistance. The feds cut t. S. A. Funding when they deemed homes rico safo return. City avenue indicates and state officials are working on further temporary housing solutis. There is good news to report tonight. Camden fire captain Robert Eckert has been released from the hospital after suffering severe head trauma fighting a fire twks ago. Brve in bellmawrorter bob tonight. Bob, a tough journey ahead for eckert but at least hes home with his family. Reporter yeah, jim, absolutely. You know, today i asked the captain when he thinks he might return to work he said if he had it his way he would have already been back or go back today but Doctors Orders he needs more rest, rest set to begin right here at home. Welcome home. Thank you. Welcome back, buddy. Reporter these are a bunch of welcome home hugs that are more than deserved. Especially this one between camden fire captain bobby eckert and his stepdaughter kennedy. Just about two short weeks ago no one knew if captain eckert was coming home. He was badly hurt at the scene of a fire. He suffered a severe head injury. I had a concussion, traumatic head injury and it knocked me out and i lost some vision there for awhile. I was couldnt see for see for a few hours. Reporter according to many city officials including camden mayor frank moran they didnt know and initially what was going to happen. Many occasions were at a funeral home and thats not what we wanted and we were fortunate that that wasnt the case so were going to make sure that he gets well and gets back to work because we need him. Reporter through tremendous care eckert came home today to this surprise welcome. He wants to thank everyone involved who helped get him here. Cooper hospital staff is unbelievable. I was transferred to magee rehabtation. I never went a day without seeing a brother or sister from the firehouse. It was unbelievable. Its been overwhelming with support. Reporter now its time to continue that progress especially with his wife and stepdaughter kennedy. Scary. Boys miss him. Ken and i miss him and were just glad to have him back. Reporter now, he makes those sunglasses look extremely cool. Its not just a fashion statement though. The captain has to wear those during his recovery jim i want to show you real quick just a few minutes ago his stepdaughter little kennedy just brought us out some food, dinner out here tonight jim fresh chicken parm, it smells delicious. We want to thank the eckerts for bringing it out were going to hop in the truck and enjoy it tonight. Reporting in bellmawr bob brooks channel6 action news. Good end pooh. Thank you bob. Montgomery county has lost a faithful public servant. Former congressman john fox died last night of cancer. Fox represented the 13th district in congress from 1995 through 1999. Before that he was a county commissioner, a state legislator and an abington township comm john fox was 70 years old. Coming up on action news tonight the city of trenton has a new plan of attack to scare away tens of thousands of crows that are making a mess of the capitol city. Plus, an eagles success means philadelphia businesses score big. Cecily. Well, the heavy rain is finally out of here but we still have some flooding along the rancocas creek. Should be dropping below flood stage wednesday morning but im tracking more rain on the way and a week of rollercoaster temperatures. All the details in the accuweather 7day forecast. And Malcolm Jenkins makes an appearance on live when action news and continues tonight. Cancer challenges us. To find smarter solutions. To offer more precise and less invasive Treatment Options than before. Like advanced Genomic Testing and immunotherapy. See how were fighting to outsmart cancer at cancercenter. Com outsmart federal wildlife officials coming to trenton tomorrow to try to scare away as many as 30,000 crows. The birds are making a mess of the capitol city. Plus theyre noisy and present a danger to aircraft. Officials plan to use methods ranging from pyrotechnics to lacers, flashlights effigies and playing audio of birds in distress. Residents might get an earful and an eye full from 4 00 to 9 oclock tuesday through friday for the next two weeks. The Philadelphia Eagles super bowl Success Story has had an emotional impact on the region. We all know that. But the fact is the team has had an Economic Impact as well. Action News Reporter vernon odom explains. [cheers and applause] reporter last weeks climactic celebration of the eagles historic march to super bowl salvation paid off not only in spirit and pride but millions of dollars in revenue for the tourism and hospitality industry. These are the latest numbers. The two playoff weekends as well as the Super Bowl Weekend equated to a 15 percent increase in Hotel Occupancy over the same period last year. And on that sunday alone for the super bowl occupancy this year preliminarily is going to be about 61 percent versus 34 percent last year. Reporter a business like the philly team store has had to reorder as much eagles gear as they can get to keep pace with demand. Which they say is three times over normal levels. This fan keeps on coming back for more. Engaging in the celebration. Reporter had you bought anything last week or the week before. Yeah. Reporter how much. Plenty. I need to get something that says super bowl champions on it. Something that as we all know we dont really get that often so. Reporter youve got to update your wardrobe. Update, yeah. This is from the 60s. Reporter for Street Vendors like nasir it is now time to run clearance sales but the eagles great run has been great for him. Business has been very good. Business has been very good. The combination has been excellent, excellent but right now we where we are. The eagles winning the super bowl really gives businesses as well as other attractions the opportunity to write a new nar. Reporter so this town is still basking in the glow of super bowl victory. The fans and the merchants praying that the eagles can become perennial contenders if not the champs. Im vernon odom, channel6 action news in center city. A lot of Eagles National celebrities now. The celebration just keeps going and going and going and that super bowl celebration continued today. The eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins got some National Exposure this morning. Jenkins was on live with kelly and ryan. From now on whenever hes introduced confetti must fall from the sky. Its in his contract. Jenkins shared his message that he delivered to his team before the big game. I basically told them now look, if you want to be super bowl champions were 60 minutes away from having, you know, World Championship the first ones in philadelphia. We get the banner on the stadium everything. All you got to do is be yourself. Being ourselves got us there, you know, we had everything that we needed. We always break it down we all we got we all we need. And we pulled it through. During the show Malcolm Kelly and ryan took to the streets of new york to play some football. Kellys got quite the arm and malcolm has some good hands. The eagles have some coaching issues to address. They have already lost offensive coordinator frank wright to the colts and quarterback coach John Defilippo to the vikings. Could duce staley be in line for a promotion. Hes reportedly a candidate to the job. Staley a former eagles player has been on the Coaching Staff since 2011. For the past five years hes been the Team Running Back coach. Its been getting warmer lately. Weve had some rain spring is in the air. No really. Listen to this. crack of a bat . The sounds of spring. Phillies getting an early jump on spring training. Several players are already in clearwater working out. Pitchers and catchers officially report to camp on wednesday. Jeff skversky is currently packing the sunscreen and bermuda shorts. Look for jeffs live reports from clearwater beginning tomorrow. Sixers host the New York Knicks tonight. When they do the sixers will have the reigning eastern conference player of the week on the floor. Joel embiid earns the honor for the second time this season. This team is on a roll as well. Tonight sixers looking for their fourth straight victory. They sit in the final spot in the eastern conference. Only three games out from being the number four seed. Were watching the standings closely and so are they. Yeah, we just looked at them today and, you know, we see that where we at and, you know, the games come up we talk about things and we know what we capable of and if we continue to be on this stretch that were on now we can make ourselves that much more of a threat. College hoops villanovas loss to saint johns last week has cost the school its number one ranking. The cats have dropped to third in the latest ap poll. Theyll visit providence on wednesday. Dont look now but the owls have caught fire. After a tough start conference play temple has won five games in a row and seven of its last eight. Fran dunphys team will face Wichita State on thursday a team theyve already beaten this season. Coach was asked if he has more confidence in his players these days. Well, i think the guys feel better about themselves and so i dont know that it matters what i feel. I think it matters what they feel. And i think they feel good about themselves right now and but they also know the importance of this week and this and the first game this week being at Wichita State they understand how challenging its going to be. Temple making a nice late season push. They have to win the tournament to get in. At least get that conference game. Eagles star fletcher cox proving hes a champion for children. The defensive tackle visited kids at the Nemours Alfred i. Dupont for children in wilmington today. He teamed up with concordeville subaru to donate money for every sac. The big check totaled 1,625 but it seems the young patients were most excited to meet the super bowl champ in person. It isnt just about vision, its about care. Nobody cares for eyes more than pearle. Tonight, get your longhorn favorites. Like our outlaw ribeye, parmesan crusted chicken or the longhorn salmon. The feeling. The flavor. The place. Longhorn steakhouse. You cant fake steak. Longhorn steakhouse. The week ahead from accuweather and cecily tynan. Little bit of a temperature rollercoaster but the sunshine returned today. Wasnt it nice to see . The action cam in center city by the board game art park and monopoly piece and actually yesterday was a great day to play a board game but you see the sunshine returned today and keith posted this great looking drone shot overlooking buckingham township pennsylvania showing the blue skies, the sunshine. Well keep the sunshine tomorrow but the accuweather highlights will show you im tracking three more chances of rain over the next week and statistically this is the heart of winter. This is when we typically see the most snow. No threat of any snow in the middle of february and actually we will get a couple shots of cold air but none of that cold will be extended. Even now its not that bad out there. After a cold front moved through temperatures were dropping but philadelphia 44, allentown 36, trenton 42, beach haven 41 and dover 41. Our high today 61 degrees, that came around midnight and the temperatures have been dropping but are you sick of the wet weekend . The past three weekends weve had rain every weekend. Typically on sunday although the past weekend we got some of there rain on saturday afternoon as well. Philadelphia more than 2inches of rain parts of south jersey and delaware more than 4inches. It was a soaker. But satellite and radar showing that cold front has slipped through. Weve got High Pressure building in so that means skies will be mainly clear tonight. It will be seasonably cold, 26 in philadelphia, 19 in allentown, wilmington 23 and cape may 27 degrees. Tomorrow this High Pressure near us, loads of sunshine, kind of mixing with some clouds, the high about 3 degrees below normal. 40 degrees. The move. High pressure is on wednesday, it splits off dives to the that allows our winds to shift out of the southwest. That pulls up mild air for valentines day 52 degrees but also the warm invection that warmer air moving in well pick up showers. Future tracker timing out the showers. By 8 30 some showers beginning to develop south and west of philadelphia so if youre heading out to dinner may want to take an umbrella, some showers still around by 11 oclock but theyre out of here on thursday and thursday temperatures running more than 20 degrees above normal. So, the exclusive accuweather 7day forecast, tomorrows a nice february day. Its sunny, its chilly, 40 degrees the high. Wednesday for valentines day bump it up to 52 degrees, bring in shows showers at night less than a quarter inch, so not much rain. Thursday we dry out and we warm up. 65 degrees. Thats 21 degrees above average. Then a cold front moves through early on friday. That will bring us some showers the first half of the day. We reach that high of 58 early, then temperatures fall. Heading to the weekend finally after three rainy weekends in a row, its dry. Its a little bit chilly on saturday, 40 degrees. On sunday, loads of sunshine, we warm up to 50 degrees and monday, which is president s day, its mild with the possibility of some rain moving in and a high of 57 degrees, so overall the next week well be on the warm side, just two cool days, no snow, just Three Chances of rain. Can we get some early crocus blooming. We may in fact by thursday. All right. Well keep an eye on that. Abcs world news tonight with david muir next on channel6. Action news continues at 10 00 on phl 17 with brian taff, Sharrie Williams adam joseph and Ducis Rodgers then please join us for a special report at 11 00 here on channel6. We have a consumer alert revealing information and advice on how to really save money if you like a sale. Nydia han has a preview. Bargain hunters beware. This will probably change the way you shop. A nearly year long undercover investigation has found too often socall prices arent a special savings at all. The undercover test shows more than a Dozen National retailers engaging in potentially disturbing pricing policies. Which National Retailers are the worst offenders . And which two chains tested do offer special savings . Find out in a special report bogus bargains tonight on channel6 action news at 11 00. And for cecily tynan Ducis Rodgers and the entire action news team, im jim gardner. We hope youll join us for action news at 11 00. This winter in the state with more ski mountains than any other, family fun reaches a new peak. So whether youre a speed demon or more of a snow angel, your winter chariot awaits. Pick the best peak for your family getaway at iloveny. Com new york state. Its all here. Its only here. Tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. The family scare. Donald trump jr. s wife and two others taken to the hospital as opening a package containing white powder. While at the white house, questions about President Trump and his former aide accused of physical abuse. The president wishing him well, and saying, remember, he says hes innocent. Now, reporters asking, will the president offer any message to the women . Also tonight, the Deadly Police standoff. 14 hours, three women killed. Three officers wounded. And the gunman allegedly saying, i will not be taken without a fight. The deadly crash at the grand canyon. One of the survivors, you can see, escaping the fiery wreckage. And what weve learned tonight. The father, lunging at that former gymnastics doctor, and tonight, will prosecutors press