Holbrook Police Dept.

Police released this mug shot of Maria Cepparo, who was arrested for leaving her four children unattended in a car while she went drinking in a bar.

A Long Island, N.Y., woman was arrested after police say she left her four children unattended in a car while she went drinking in a bar early Sunday morning.

Authorities say Maria Cepparo, 40, left her children in an unlocked, unheated car parked in a fire zone outside Momo’s Sports Bar and Grill in Holbrook at around 12:15 a.m., according to authorities.

The children — a 13-year-old son who is autistic, an eight-year-old son and six-year-old twin daughters — are now in the care of their grandmother.

Cepparo was charged with endangering the welfare of a child. Information on an attorney for Cepparo was not immediately available.

A pit bull saved a woman from a fire in her Long Island, New York home on Friday, barking to alert her as the flames began to spread from the front to the back of the house.

Jackie Bonasera said she was drying her hair in an upstairs bathroom of the home on Gabriele Drive in East Norwich when she heard the dog barking. She ran downstairs and saw the flames on the side of her garage. 

She was able to escape the house.

"I ran out of the house and my neighbors came running over, and then I thought about the dog – I'm like, 'He saved my life, I have to save his,'" Bonasera recounted.

"So I just put my robe over my face and I ran back in and I grabbed the dog and then I stood out here and I watched my house burn," she said.

Bonasera believes she would have been trapped upstairs if the dog, named Cain, hadn't alerted her to the fire.

Bonasera's daughter, Alexus Stallworth, said Cain is "the town hero."

"He's a pit bull, too," said Stallworth. "They have such bad reps, but he's such a good boy."

Stallworth was outside the house when the fire broke out and captured the blaze on her cell phone camera.

More than 70 firefighters were needed to stop the fire. Although the cause of the blaze has not been determined and the arson squad is investigating, police don't believe it's suspicious.

The homeowner is a contractor who is working on several homes that were damaged by Sandy, and he said he now hopes he can get his own home fixed before winter.

NBC New York's Greg Cergol and Jeff Richardson contributed to this story.

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Two young siblings reported missing on New York's Long Island died Sunday after their fully clothed bodies were pulled from the black waters of a neighbor's pool in 50-degree temperatures, police said.

Police received a 911 call at about 3:30 p.m. from a mother reporting that her 5-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter disappeared from their home in Central Islip, said Detective Sgt. Edward Fandrey of the Suffolk County police homicide squad. While searching the neighborhood, an officer spotted a shoe floating in a next-door neighbor's aboveground pool, which was uncovered and contained blackish water, Fandrey said.

Officers jumped into the 4-foot-deep pool and discovered the unconscious bodies of Ralph Knowles and Sharon Knowles. The brother and sister were taken to Southside Hospital, where efforts to resuscitate them failed, Fandrey said.

The pool is surrounded by a deck. Both are sunken into the ground and surrounded by a low, wooden fence.

Fandrey said the pool's owner had been cited by the town for improper fencing.

"The exposed side of the stockade fence was facing out, instead of the smooth side," he said, adding that the slats made it easier to climb over the shared fence.

Telephone calls to numbers listed for the addresses of the victims and the pool's owner went unanswered Sunday night.

The home where the children lived is owned by a nonprofit that provides housing to homeless families, Newsday reported.

The children's uncle, Henry Valentine, 32, of Jamaica, Queens, told the newspaper that the childrens' mother, whom he identified as Tia Knowles, was "devastated."

"She's not doing good at all," he said.

This story was originally published on Sun Apr 14, 2013 8:41 PM EDT

NBCNewYork.com

Mother Chantelle Legrand with baby Alani Evelyn Mars.

A baby was born on the side of a highway on New York's Long Island Thursday, after the expectant father took a wrong turn on the way to hospital.

The couple was driving on the Seaford Oyster Bay Expressway when they realized they were not going to make it to the hospital in time.

“I said the baby’s coming, the baby’s coming she’s right there," Chantelle Legrand, the mother, told NBC 4 New York. "We pulled over and called 911. And soon as I got out the car, paramedics took me out the car, I had the baby in the ambulance.”

Alani Evelyn Mars, the 8-pound-baby girl, was born healthy. She is the couple’s third child. Legrand says the birth of Alani was the easiest of the three, though Alani's father might disagree.

“I was really, really nervous and scared. I can’t describe how it felt. It was really, really very nerve racking,” Alani's father, Gregory Mars, said.

The entire family is doing well.

Police are on the lookout for a pair of pit bulls that mauled a teen and three women in separate attacks within half an hour on Long Island.

The attacks were all within a five-block area in Lakeview, in New York's Nassau County.

Nassau County police say the dogs, one black and one brown, first bit a 16-year-old boy on his left arm at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday near Parkside Road and Cedar Road. 

Ten minutes later, a 54-year-old woman was also bitten on the left arm as she walked on Pinebrook Avenue near Parkside Road.

Read more from NBCNewYork.com

Ten minutes after that, the dogs attacked a 24-year-old woman on Pinebrook Avenue near Tyler Road. She was injured on her left leg and right arm.

And about 10 minutes later, 29-year-old Kashina Sylvester was attacked by the dogs and suffered injuries to her face, shoulder and both arms on Clinton Ave.

Sylvester had just gotten out of her car when the dogs went after her.

"They were biting at my jacket at first," she said. "Then one chomped down on my thigh and I went down and ended up being bitten in the head and thighs and up and down the arms."

Sylvester screamed as she tried to get back in her car.

"I kicked them, I punched one of them across the head," she said. Sylvester stuck her hand into the mouth of the other dog, which had clamped onto her head, to force it to let go of her. 

After Sylvester cried and honked her horn, neighbor Justin Williams found her and called 911 for help.

"I feel like someone's run me across a cheese grater," Sylvester said Wednesday. 

Hempstead's Animal Care and Control officers are conducting a grid search looking for the dogs, knocking on doors and driving around.

"We're hoping that they're home at this point," said Cindy Iacopella of Hempstead Animal Control. "It's likely that the owners of these dogs don't even know that this occurred." 

Bearing a sling on her arm, bite marks on her head and leg, Sylvester had a message for the dog owners: "If you can't control your dog, you don't deserve to have them." 

Frustrated residents on New York's Long Island, stranded in their homes by Friday's blizzard, spent Monday calling local town officials and begging for plows to dig them out.

In Centereach, neighbors took matters into their own hands, pushing vehicles out of the streets and using shovels and snowblowers to clear the streets on their own.

"For the last three days, we've been pushing people out and digging people out," said Steve Reinhardt.

Walter Doroski, who's been helping push cars through the icy, snowy mess on Wood Drive, said, "It's been horrible. This is the worst it's ever been, we haven't seen a plow truck at all."

On Dean Street in Port Jefferson Station, a man slipped on the icy road while trying to help push a friend's car. That man needed an ambulance but help could not make it up the road.

"The ambulance couldn't pass, so they had to come on a sled and just put him on there and drag him away," said witness Elinson Taveres.

Read more news on NBCNewYork.com

Clay Darrohn, a father of two in Nesconset, was stuck in his home for three days and his calls to Smithtown officials went unanswered.

His wife needed to make a business trip to Chicago and was eventually forced to trudge through knee-deep snow to a friend's waiting car at the end of her street.

Others living on Commander Vic Lane also tried and failed to bring help.

"I am so mad, I can't tell you. It's crazy," said neighbor Ira Jacobs.

Jacobs and his neighbors cleared part of the street using snowblowers. Shortly after NBC 4 New York called, Smithtown plows were finally seen in the streets.

The arrival of the first plow was greeted by jeers from Jacobs.

"Where have you been for three days?" he asked.

Still buried
Similar questions were being asked in Suffolk communities like Setauket and Ronkonkoma, still buried under nearly 3 feet of snow.

Slideshow: Northeast storm

Craig Ruttle / AP

A dangerous winter storm churned Friday into the Northeast as forecasters warned of a whiteout.

Launch slideshow

Watching and waiting for a way off the snow-covered street was Fran Gucciardo, a woman in her 80s who relies on oxygen because of a rare pulmonary disease. Gucciardo has been unable to get to her doctor or physical therapy since the storm.

"These people are saving my life," Gucciardo said of her neighbors.

"I understand this was an unusual storm, but there was plenty of time to prepare for it," Gucciardo added.

Shortly after NBC 4 New York spoke to Brookhaven officials about Starfire Lane, plows finally arrived on that street as well.

"I won't sleep until every street is cleared," said Brookhaven deputy supervisor Dan Panico.

According to Panico, the storm overwhelmed town plowing operations across Suffolk.

The depth of the snow was too much for regular plows, Panico explained, so work was delayed until heavy equipment could be brought in from other areas.

"I understand the frustration," Panico said. "I am frustrated, too"

Panico is overseeing clean-up operations in Brookhaven because town supervisor Ed Romaine is away on vacation and the town's acting highway superintendent is sick, a town spokesman confirmed.

Their absence had no impact on the storm cleanup, and Romaine's office said his trip was planned far in advance of the storm.

But Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld questioned, "If you knew it was headed toward your township, would you make the decision to change your plans and stay and marshal forces to help residents, or would you go on vacation?"

Related:

Northeast returns to normal as power comes on, roads reopen, flights resume

More from The Weather Channel

A woman raped in a Long Island, N.Y., home used her tongue to dial 911 while her hands were bound with duct tape, officials say.

The woman was house-sitting last month for a friend when she was brutally attacked, said James Chalifoux, of the Suffolk County Major Crimes Bureau. Chalifoux said the woman managed to place the 911 call about 10 minutes after the hour-long assault ended.

The woman and her alleged attacker did not know each other, according to Newsday, which first reported the assault.

Patrick O'Sullivan, 20, pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack, including predatory sexual assault, rape, criminal sexual act, sexual abuse, burglary, and two counts of criminal use of firearm.

O'Sullivan allegedly entered the home through an unlocked kitchen door at approximately 11 p.m. on Nov. 20, according to Chalifoux. When the woman discovered O'Sullivan, he pointed a loaded .22-caliber rifle at her, Chalifoux said.

Chalifoux said police seized O'Sullivan's car and recovered a rifle, as well as items taken from the house where the alleged assault took place, including female undergarments.

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