• 'People were shrieking': NYC-bound Greyhound bus infested with roaches

    By Pei-Sze Cheng, NBCNewYork.com

    NEW YORK CITY -- A Greyhound bus bound for New York City had to pull over and evacuate Friday because it was infested with roaches that dropped from the ceiling and skittered across seats and the floor, terrorizing riders.

    Mothers tried to shield their children and riders jumped into the aisle of the bus as roaches bolted out of cracks and crevices, seemingly all at once, about 15 minutes after the 10 a.m. ET bus left Atlantic City, passengers told NBC 4 New York.

    "All of a sudden the roaches came out of nowhere, they were on the floor, they were falling from the ceiling," said Andy Rodriguez, a passenger.

    Tracy Harmon told NBC 4 New York that "people were shrieking and shaking roaches off."

    "It was terrible," she said.

    The bus was carrying 48 people and an unknown number of roaches, according to Greyhound.

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    "Once the driver became aware of the situation, the driver followed procedures by pulling the bus over to a safe location and notifying our dispatch office," Greyhound spokesman Timothy Stokes said.

    A second bus was sent to pick up the passengers, and they later arrived at Port Authority Bus Terminal.

    Greyhound said the company apologizes and has refunded the trip for all the passengers.

  • Betting from bed: NJ casino first to have TV gambling

    Wayne Parry / AP

    John Forelli, a vice president at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City, N.J., demonstrates a new in-room gambling system on Monday. The system will be available to guests starting Feb. 18.

    By Wayne Parry, The Associated Press

    Guests at one New Jersey casino won't even have to get out of bed in order to place a bet.

    The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa in Atlantic City said it will become the first casino in the United States to let guests gamble over hotel room TV sets, starting Feb. 18.

    Its E-Casino program will let guests with player's cards set up electronic accounts and risk up to $2,500 a day. Slots and four kinds of video poker will be the first games offered.

    The casino says the technology can be expanded to include gambling over hand-held devices anywhere on casino property, which New Jersey recently authorized, and full Internet gambling, if the state approves it.

    "This puts us in a position to leverage the technology into true mobile gaming and Internet betting later on," said Tom Balance, the Borgata's president and chief operating officer. "We're moving forward with the future of gaming, and this is that first step."

    John Forelli, the casino's vice president of information technology, said it is designed not only as an added amenity, but to get them familiar and comfortable with the concept of electronic gambling accounts for the day when Internet wagering comes to New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie last week vetoed an Internet gambling bill, but said he would sign one with some moderate changes.

    The casino does not expect in-room gambling to supplant a significant portion of its action on the casino floor. Rather, it views it as an added attraction for customers trying to decide which of many East Coast casino destinations to visit.

    Susan Marzetti, a casino patron from Staten Island, N.Y., said she would not take advantage of it.

    "I like the ambiance of being down here on the casino floor," she said. "I like the noise of the machines. In my room, I'd find it depressing, to be honest."

    But William Frawley said he'd definitely take advantage of it during down time.

    "I think it would be a great added feature," he said. "I'd be willing to invest $100 and run it through there. Video poker, I'd definitely play."

    Borgata officials said they had no estimates of how much they expect to take in through the system, which is subject to a 90-day trial period by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement.

    The system is built by Allin Interactive, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company that specializes in interactive television applications.


    There are several controls to prevent the system from being used by minors or people excluded from gambling. A customer would have to have a Borgata player's club card, which would screen them to ensure they are of legal gambling age and are not banned from any casino premises.

    The PIN number used for the players' club card would have to be combined with a temporary password provided by the casino's front desk. Patrons would then go to the casino cashier cage and open an electronic account by providing up to $2,500 in cash, the maximum the state allows to be transferred into the system each day.

    The system works using the TV remote control. Players can toggle back and forth among a slots game called Rum Runner's Riches and four kinds of video poker. The casino eventually plans to add more games if the test period if successful.

    Players who want to cash out just click a button on the screen and the proceeds of their gambling go into an e-wallet that can be stored for future visits, or paid out at the casino cashier cage, just like winnings accrued on the casino floor.

    The technology is currently used on large cruise ships. It will be available in all 2,000 of the Borgata's rooms.

    Las Vegas allows sports betting on hand-held devices.

  • 'Atlantic City is ready': Boardwalk reopens as residents line up for aid

    View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

    By Cydney Long and David Chang, NBCPhiladelphia.com

    Two weeks after superstorm Sandy, Atlantic City residents celebrated the reopening of the famed boardwalk on Sunday.

    Elvis and Michael Jackson impersonators were joined by a crowd of nearly 200 as they strutted down a mile-long stretch of the boardwalk from the Atlantic Club Hotel and Casino to the new Revel Casino.

    "Atlantic City is here, it's whole, it's ready and begging for you to come back," said Liz Cartmell of the Atlantic City Alliance.

    Hundreds of hospitality employees were among those who suffered severe losses during Sandy.

    "These are people who if they're not scheduled, they don't make money," said Cartmell. "They rely on tips and they rely on their hours."


    Getting help
    At the same time, those affected by Sandy lined up by the hundreds at nearby Bader Field. Help from the Red Cross included everything from toothpaste and shaving items to a cleaning kit, shovels, brooms and baby supplies.

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    "We've heard their story a million times," said Don Barker of the American Red Cross. "A lot of times this is the first time that the people have gotten to tell their stories to someone. That is huge."

    Volunteers, some from as far away as Mexico and Canada, came by the hundreds to help victims.

    Red Cross: Sandy response 'Near flawless'

    "This is the largest I've ever seen, and the largest many of us have ever heard [in terms of] the number of people affected and the need that is out there," said Robbin Stephens of the Red Cross of British Columbia.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

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    A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    'Overwhelmed' and 'happy'
    For Latisha Williams, who lost two weeks of work and still needs to disinfect her home from the flood, the help is a lifeline.

    "I'm kind of overwhelmed, I'm real happy," said Williams, who has a newborn daughter. "I don't want to tear up or anything, but it's really a good thing to see all this big help." 

    Two weeks after Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast, New Yorkers question whether help from the Red Cross will arrive. But CEO President Gail McGovern defends what she calls a massive relief effort. NBC's Lisa Myers reports.

    Atlantic City Alliance told NBC10 that in the days after the casinos reopened, occupancy lingered at 10 percent, but has edged up to nearly 50 percent thanks to the recent warm weather.

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  • Sandy hammers Jersey Shore, levels homes, shreds boardwalks

    NBC's Brian Williams speaks with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who describes the iconic places on the Jersey Shore that have been wiped out after Sandy, such the boardwalk in Belmar. All that remains is water, sand and debris. Christie said he's committed to rebuilding with the help of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

    An ariel shot reveals damage in New Jersey Shore from Superstorm Sandy on Tuesday.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The New Jersey Shore, the East Coast’s summer playground, famous for its amusement parks, fine white sand beaches, family vacation cottages and even a reality TV show, could be among areas hardest hit by Superstorm Sandy.


    On Tuesday, stark images of leveled homes, shredded boardwalks, boats tossed blocks inland and acres of sand hurled hundreds of yards from the coast began to emerge.

    Aerial video on Thursday from state police via NBC’s News10 in Philadelphia showed homes splintered and others surrounded by floodwaters.

     

    In footage from a New Jersey National Guard helicopter, beach homes along Seaside Heights were strewn at odd angles off their foundations, debris was on fire and roads were inundated with sand.

    One reader commented on Facebook that it looked like Normandy Beach, site of the allied forces landing in France during World War II.

    According to a media pool reporter who accompanied Coast Guard Rear Adm. Steven H. Ratti in a flyover on Tuesday the destruction is extensive. Ratti said he was surprised at the number of washed-out bridges and new inlets carved through New Jersey's barrier Islands. Ratti also noted how unusual it is to see those beach towns so empty.

    "Normally you see folks on the beach, cars, but saw little of that today," Ratti said.

    In an appearance on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Tuesday evening, Gov. Chris Christie called the damage "unthinkable."

    Watch aerials from the New Jersey State Police of the devastation from Sandy along the New Jersey Shore. Raw video.

    "I flew over the Seaside Heights boardwalk today. The roller coaster, the log flume ride are in the ocean," Christie told Williams. "The boardwalk in front of Lucky Leos is gone. It’s literally gone. The big sausage and pepper stand in the middle is gone."

    Christie said that kind of damage could be seen up and down the Jersey Shore.

    "All you see is water and sand and debris where the boardwalk used to be," Christie said of Belmar.

    "I’m committed to rebuilding," Christie said. "We’re going to do it. It’s not only the heart of our economy, it’s the soul of New Jersey. The Jersey Shore is the soul of New Jersey."

    A dune constructed to protect Point Pleasant Beach was blown away by the storm surge, sending sand far inland, NBC’s Ron Mott reported.

    Reporting from Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, NBC's Ron Allen reports that the sand dunes designed to help protect the town were spread far and wide once floodwaters hit.

    The deadly storm, which hit the Atlantic City dead on and ripped up sections of its famous boardwalk, left more than 2 million people in the state without power and submerged portions of some shore towns, NBC10 in Philadelphia reported.

    Related: Superstorm Sandy leaves surreal scenes in its wake

    Atlantic City was cut off from the mainland by the storm surge along with other barrier islands, stranding residents who ignored warnings to evacuate. The city’s response sparked a feud between the mayor and governor.

    A USA Today reporter who visited Fork River spoke to a Beach Haven resident, Erik Zak, who said much of the town was destroyed.

    "There are boats on top of decks, garages floated into the bay," he said. "We saw houses on top of boats."

    President Barack Obama has declared New Jersey a disaster area, clearing the way for federal disaster assistance to help start cleanup.

    On Wednesday, Obama will join Christie in New Jersey for a tour of storm damage and a talk with residents who are recovering from the storm. He will also talk to first responders, according to a White House statement.

    Obama called the storm “heartbreaking for the nation.”

    Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

    Andrew Burton / Getty Images

    Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

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  • 19-year-old charged with shaking baby to death

    View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.

     

    By David Chang and Danielle Johnson, NBC10.com

    A 19-year-old New Jersey man will appear in court Monday after being charged with shaking his girlfriend's baby to death, according to the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office.


    Daquan Davis is charged with manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

    Police say Davis was caring for the 6-month-old infant Friday morning at School House Apartments on North Martin Luther King Boulevard in Atlantic City, N.J., while the child’s mother was at work.

    For more, visit NBC10.com

    Police say when she returned home around 4 a.m., she found her son unresponsive and called police. The baby was pronounced dead. Investigators believe Davis shook the baby, causing his death.

    In an NBC10 exclusive interview, the child’s mother, Ebony Stewart, described the horrific discovery she made when she returned home.

    “I noticed my son wasn’t breathing. I looked closer and he wasn’t breathing. His face was purple and frozen cold.”

    Stewart said Davis acted as if nothing had happened.

    “He sat there saying, 'Everything will be alright …We’re in this together … I know you’re hurting. I am here for you,'" Stewart said.

    One of the woman's neighbors appeared rattled by the news: "I live in this building, and that same little baby, just two weeks ago, I told the mom how cute the baby was. And just to hear this, right now, I don't know what to think, I really don't,” Lloyd Phillips told NBC's Atlantic City affiliate.

    Davis is currently being held on $750,000 bail.

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  • Woman's body snatched from New Jersey cemetery

    Grave robbers broke into a mausoleum in New Jersey and stole the body of woman who died in 1996.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A woman’s body was stolen from her grave last week, 16 years after she was laid to rest in a New Jersey cemetery.


    Police are searching for the people responsible for stealing the body of Pauline Spinelli, who was entombed with five other family members in a mausoleum located in a secluded area of Atlantic City Cemetery in Pleasantville, N.J. She died in 1996 at the age of 98.

    “I’m going to miss grandma, even though she’s dead,” Pauline’s grandson, Rocco Spinelli told NBCPhiladelpia.com. “They’re sick people, they’re crazy.”

    Police say sometime late Thursday or early Friday of last week, someone removed the lock from the mausoleum, got inside, smashed a heavy marble slab, pried open an aluminum casket, and left with Spinelli’s body.

    Cemetery officials discovered the empty coffin around noon on Saturday and alerted police to the theft.

    “The glass was broken by some type of means,” Pleasantville Police Capt. Rocky Melendez told NBCPhiladelphia.com. “The person who came here came with the tools necessary to break into that.”

    Police have no leads, but they believe several people likely used heavy duty tools to break into the mausoleum and steal Pauline from her final resting place.

    Family members say they believe that a cult has something to do with the theft of Pauline’s body.

    “What can these people possibly be believing in to take a 16-year-old dead body?” Spinelli said. “I don’t want to see somebody desecrate her body, chop her up or make some kind of voodoo dust out of her.”

    Police say they're investigating all possible motives in the case. 

    Melendez said other areas of the state have dealt with similar incidents before, including in 2006 when police arrested Michael Mastromarino, the CEO of a New Jersey human tissue recovery firm and the head of a body snatching ring. Mastromarino and his employees netted millions of dollars illegally harvesting human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from more than a thousand individuals awaiting cremation.

    Police say they are reaching out to other police departments in New Jersey. There are no security cameras near the Spinelli mausoleum.

    “If you’re done with her, bring her back,” Spinelli said. “If anything works in their minds, grandmom’s going to haunt them for the rest of their lives.” 

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  • Atlantic City cancels gaming

    Hurricane Irene has busted legal gaming in Atlantic City, N.J. Here's the statement suspending operations beginning noon ET Saturday:

    Trenton, NJ - Governor Chris Christie today announced that, in coordination with the Governor's Office, the Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) and Casino Association of New Jersey, all gaming activity in Atlantic City will be suspended as of noon Saturday. Security, surveillance and maintenance operations and personnel have been ramped up and coordinated to ensure that the necessary resources to protect and secure the casino properties and assets are substantial and in place.

    Guests of the Atlantic City casino properties who find themselves stranded due to travel logistics problems will be permitted to stay in the hotels. Meanwhile, evacuation of all others able to leave will proceed via local evacuation plans. To ease the traffic flow into southern New Jersey and specifically traffic into Atlantic City, southbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway will be closed at Wall Township (Exit 98) beginning today at 8:00 p.m. Ahead of that, all eastbound traffic into Atlantic City will be diverted beginning at 6:00 p.m. 

    Casino executives, officials of the DGE, state and local Office of Emergency Management officials, and the New Jersey State Police Atlantic City district commander will be meeting again this afternoon to further coordinate storm-related issues ahead of Hurricane Irene. For further information about safety precautions, evacuation routes and best practices please go to ready.nj.gov.

  • Airline ad gets folks burning mad

    Spirit Airlines

    Spirit Airlines has launched a new online ad campaign for the beaches of Atlantic City, N.J., (shown) built around the oil BP spill in the Gulf, setting off a flurry of angry messages from customers, NBC station WCAU of Philadelphia reports:

    "This is a bad ad. Maybe the oil-covered pelicans can advertise pictures of seagulls and pigeons sucked into jet engines. And to try to make money off of a treasured area that is not responsible for there troubles at all? Total shamelessness," wrote Facebook user Adrian Hickman.

    On Twitter, @devonxo says, "the sad part about this is if it's not stopped in a few months, AC will have oil on its beaches!"

    @Koons17112 tweets: "one word about that spirit ad campaign ... FAIL."

    In a statement, Spirit said it was "unfortunate that some have misunderstood our intention with today's beach promotion. We are merely addressing the false perception that we have oil on our beaches, and we are encouraging customers to support Florida and our other beach destinations by continuing to travel to these vacation hot spots."