is next. we begin with breaking news. an arrest in a deadly hit-and- run accident. allison huffman. the prime suspect in that deadly hit-and-run crash that killed a driver on the frankland bridge. >> michael has more. what can you tell us? >> reporter: as you know they have been searching for huffman 19 hours and coming to a conclusion at the promenade apartments in st. petersburg. florida highway patrol got a tip at 9:00 that huffman was here and a friend called in that tip. there is a cruiser that we are building and they have her in custody in the back of that cruiser still trying to get confirmation is that in fact allison huffman but she is in custody. from this point transported to the pinellas county deal and arrested in connect to hitting a tow truck driver on the frankland bridge. hfp saying that roger perez was hit and killed while he was helping two stranded motorists. they found huffman's car with damage on it and ever since that moment they have been searching for her and we are told she has three prior dui arrests in hillsborough county. after 19 hours a tip leading to this apartment complex here in st. petersburg. we spoke to some of perez's co- workers. they are heart broken by the loss. >> we are told he has a wife and child in venezuela and saving up money to get his family from venezuela to bring them here to florida. that huffman is in custody and in charge of this investigation. we believe she is in the st. petersburg cruiser and taken into custody and taken to jail. this is developing information and li ipinellas county. michael, thank you. chief meteorologist dennis phillips has heavy rain in the bay area. jamison this is the same area attached to what to what what severe weather. one hundred west of pinellas county and the lightning has picked up. as we look to future cast over the next several hours, it will roll in overnight and could have an impact on your morning commute. we will take a closer look a tornado causing damage to ten homes in escambia county. emergency crews receiving reports of people trapped and they are going through the debris and the storm causing thousands of power outages in north florida. burglaries stealing more than one thousand dollars of electronics at a clear water hotel. reporter mike pa loosa with more. >> reporter: we are talking at least four guest rooms hit in a matter of minutes and burglars had free reign of the entire 9th floor. 18-year-old camry clark is not smiling in her booking photo and there is a good reason. she faces a litany of felony charges. la and a 5-year-old man broke into four separate hotel rooms. >> we have been here four times and always been secure. the hyatt for the next week. >> yesterday was a bigger crowd because it was valentine's day but it is quiet today. the general manager says the safety of guests is their priority and cooperating with police. the gm would not comment on their protocol on keeping the master housekeeper keys secured. i am more concerned about the people coming in, the maid service. the arrest report shows the duo stole more than $1200 worth of electronics and valuables. >> anything could happen anywhere. i'm from new york. >> people can steal stuff out of your pocket without you knowing. the shop say obviously this is a high tourism system and it comes with thefts, they have in clear water beach. michael paloosa. abc action news. three gunmen left a veteran gunman fighting for his life. the trio got in to a home through an unlocked door and holding three roommates at gunpoint stealing cash and valuables. they shot veteran grant langenburg in the chest during an argument. >> security cameras rolling in a neighborhood showing a man kill his neighbor's german shepherd puppy. the dog's owner says that two of the animals escaped and the dogs went on the street to a neighbor's property and that neighbor shooting the 3 month- old puppy. claiming that the puppy charged at him and he feared for his safety. deputies claiming that video supports the supporting the shooter's story so no charges will be filed. a tornado touches down. ahead how customers and employees inside the restaurant help arrived. you don't treat anybody like that. a local christian charity meant to help orphans and what they are accused of doing making people angry. out of control, a garage truck flying off of an interstate bridge crashing to a neighborhood below. this bizarre accident. an update from miami. a man is in serious condition tonight after the garage truck he was driving flipped off of interstate 95. the truck fell near a park entrance 100 feet down from the interstate. luckily no one on the ground was injured but there is structural damage. investigators trying to determine what caused the crash. florida there is a home. this is a fundraiser for hope children's home. one of tampa bay's charities that serves abused and neglected children. >> but they have struggled with finances and their former business manager al schafer is now being sentenced in the coming months for embezzling from that charity. >> adam walzer has been digging into the problems. extending to more than shaffer's funds including one of the orphans that the charity took in. using brochures like these in two thrift stores hope children homes raises when 4- million dollars a year to help children and that is about $53,000 per year and one of the children is raising serious allegations against the men behind the charities. >> work, work, that's it. >> james who is 30 came to hope his mother gave him up. he has an intellectual disability and he was moved on hope's property and put to work. >> mike higgin isis hope's executive director and been with the charity since 2001. >> all of the kids would help out in the horse stables. >> he said he would unload the truck and go and get on board the thrift store truck. it sounds like a lot of work. >> not really. it is our day to day operation at hope. >> it is a family with five of mike higgins' family members holding five positions and all six get free room and board and james was not on the payroll for his work and hope kept his $700 a month in government benefits. >> with me it was hard work. >> this man met james when james was 24 and drove the thrift store truck and james helped him to pick up heavy furniture and donations. every day and i checked the refrigerator and the cabinets and there was never food. >> james was not shifted like family. james had a food stamp card but the higgins controlled it. this email hopes that business manager says james is a kleptomaniac. >> and so we took his card and james anytime you want it we will have you go to the store. >> james wanted to leave but when he asked hope they said james couldn't. >> mike higgins claimed to be his guardian. >> he told thousand. >> told you this. >> and so did ryan higgins. >> nobody will listen to you over the higgins. >> but robbaitch listened and he learned he could leave at any time and took james to his home. >> i got hollered at and threatened. >> hope fired robbavetch the same day. >> he is no longer a child. an adult and working and not being paid. and nobody told him that, hey, you don't have to stay here. >> again, i don't think the conversation came up that you could leave. i wanted james to have the security and stability of this home. >> after james left hope higgins asked to be james' guardian. >> do you want to go back to hope children? >> no, i do not. they were very mean to me. >> james told a judge he would kill himself if he had to go back and the judge read reports from a psychologist and psychiatrist and a social worker and the psychiatrist said he was moderately incapacitated and said he is naive and may be the victim of a designing person and he said he had food withheld and accepted the guardian as long as it was not someone connected to hope children's home and the social worker said he described limitations to work and labor without pay and being forced to attend religious services not of his faith and yelling at him and the judge considered this report from a dentist that said that james needed more than $15,000 worth of dental work to fix problems from years of neglect. higgins says that hope made sure that james had regular dental visits. >> it could have been a position that the medicaid doctor didn't identify the needs. >> the judge said james is mentally incapacitated so he living and gave guardianship to robba ditch. >> the day they left with james they went to the social security office and had the makes you wonder. >> they were assigned to you. >> we provided everything for him. >> as to why robba vetch was fired they said he confiscated property and the agency granted robba victim benefits and if he took money it exceeding legal fees. >> you gave up your house. >> yes. >> and you gave up your car. >> yes. >> was it worth it. >> yes. >> can't help but feel it is your own trouble and to have that disdain, i hated that but i knew with james' mentality i was up against. message for the higgins. >> it is wrong. to treat anybody like that. it doesn't matter who it is. you don't treat nobody like that. nobody. not even the person you really you don't treat like that. >> i'm i-team investigators adam walzer taking action for you. well this dramatic vehicle from alexandria dropping this on the pizza hut. the roof crushing the passenger side of this woman's car. abc action news action weather. and we have some pretty heavy weather in our area. >> what is left. just showed the tornado, several tornado warnings up north. much to worry about in severe weather but a lot of folks depend on noah radio weathers but it is down now. they are moving the transmitter to another site. if there is severe weather tonight overnight you won't get it from the noah weather radio that is a better reason to download storm shield and available on google play and the app store and pinpoints down to the exact location if there is any severe weather. i don't expect anything widespread but there's a chance that we could see a few strong thunderstorms mainly because of what is going on offshore. we were showing you this earlier in the newscast. it is a decent amount of lightning with this. it is moving over the warmer waters of the gulf before it starts to cool off. moving to eddy that can worm things up tremendously and cause the storms to get rather strong rather quickly but it still has to move over the cooler shelf waters. the gulf temperatures in it will cause it to weaken before it arrives. we will watch it because of the energy and rotation. i wouldn't be shocked if i see a water spot on radar down the road but again this is not something that we're overly concern about. but it is still a slight possibility that the storms can go strong and the second line will weaken by the time it rolls in at 4:00. here is the good news. may wake you up overnight the bulk of the rain if not all of the rain will be over by the rush hour. can you believe that? take a look at rain that far in the gulf and over the next seven hours it will just race from the gulf right on in and pass our viewing area with temperatures in the mid to upper 60s. we had rain earlier this evening. county but the main area and by the way you see this red box, as levy county. up there but we are very confident the heaviest weather well to the north but we are still going to have to keep our eyes on what is out in the western gulf mainly because as we have seen a half a dozen times with the el nino situation things can get rather looking at this, this is ominous but in my mind it is moderate to heavy rain coming through and yes there could be a few spots that pick up extremely heavy rain and even the polk county of some gusty winds and a quick tornado. i can't rule that out over the next several hours and most folks, 6:00 tomorrow morning, it is mostly gone. and then not just the rest of tomorrow but the week skies we stay in the 70s all week long. how about that for a change. a long time before we could say that. talking about rainfall totals. check this out. most folks only about a quarter of an inch of rain. you say wait a minute, that rain looked heavy. it will last a half hour and not see heavy rains because it won't rain that long but where it does and when it does, you will hear it. probably between two a.m. and four a.m. when the heaviest weather comes through leading the temperatures tomorrow in the northern county cooler and everything else should hit 70. downtown south, desoto close to 80s before the slightly cooler air rules in. behind, not that bad, northerly winds at five to ten knots. gulf temperatures cool and that could be a good thing cooling off the energy from those storms coming on shore, 56- degree. will be tapering off. a look at the seven-day forecast, once we get rid of the rain in the morning we are home free! not just for the rest of the day but the rest of the week. with highs each day under sunny skies in the low 70s. thank you, dennis in. >> the lightning needed help from one of the division foes to hold the playoff position. tk has the update in sports and here is jimmy kimmel on jimmy kimmel live. sharing is caring. because i care. had a in citrus county. three women claiming that they have been stalked and terrorized and deputies saying that the suspect william bigel's threats got more terror. tammy bigel watched her son he was locked up for cyberstalking for dating three different women and used different media sites to reach out to them after they blocked him. >> i don't think he would be that stupid. >> the victims were threatened. they said billy threaten to stab one of them and another victim if she didn't listen he would send people to their home authorities say that billy was out on probation for felony aggravated stalking. his mom claims he was not guilty and taking a plea deal on that out of state case and she believes that someone set him up. >> why would billy do that to three different women? is he looking to go to prison? all i know is he would not do that. >> mom stresses he doesn't own a phone because of what happened in the past and doesn't think he was using online dating sites. >> not that i know of. i don't know what he does but not that i know of. i don't know what he does in his room. folks you hate to have somebody in your division give you help ahead of you but the lightning will say thank you to the panthers. they held off in sunrise that was big for the bolts. it looks like the panthers would hold on for the win but chris kunich gets off of a wrister that hits the cross bar and went in to tie the game at one. this one would be decided in a shootout and yokamin knocked the bolts out of the top 8 despite earning one point. 2-1 the final, panthers won it but i'm telling you the bolts need wins tomorrow and thursday before they head to pittsburgh to take on the penguins. >> it is another one of those we gave up two and lose. and those are tough. so it is -- we just got to regroup here. everybody around us is winning and we talked about our nice little run that we went on with the nice picture. we need to get a win here. meanwhile the lightning gm steve yzerman did his best. he said that steven stamkos would be not traded before february 29th and he said that it was the team's hope to reach an agreement on a new contract at some point. now it is pretty obvious that they are not at that point but with 27 games remaining yzerman said the entire organization wants to focus on the playoffs. yzerman will have no further comment on the state of the negotiations. counted by patrick berglund. i think the bolts wanted an explanation. where in this video did berglund not go to a back side kicking motion. the skate left the ice on a deliberate move. the funny thing is that berglund did not challenge the call and cost the bolts a point and i sure hope it is not the difference at the end of the season. louisville playing host to bulls. later in the corner williams to locksa. underneath, right here for two. bulls have a five-point lead and louisville goes on a 9-0 run in the final minute, 50. enrique carter hitting the three and the cardinals led by we're back in a minute and change. closed captioning brought to you by lakeland toyota, a, save storms brewing on the gulf and between between two and overnight as needed. especially the weather on abcactionnews.com. have a good night. we will see you back here >> dicky: from hollywood, it's " jimmy kimmel live" ! tonight -- david spade -- derek hough -- and it's mashup monday with music from "panic! at the sisqo" with cleto and the cletones. and now, you've got it -- here's

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