A simple Uber pickup in Los Angeles turned into a very special delivery for one driver after his pregnant passenger realized she woudn't make to the hospital in time to give birth there.

On Friday evening, Niv and Erica Davidovich were preparing for Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. When Erica started having contractions, she lit candles and began to pray.

She asked God for a fast and easy delivery and a healthy baby.

Niv says his wife’s prayers were answered in "a very odd way."

To not break any Shabbat laws, which don’t allow activities such as driving, the couple called for an Uber to take them to the hospital. Because Erica had previously given birth to three other children, she thought she had time. 

"When I called I thought, 'OK, I have 10 hours. It’s very painful and I want to get my epidural,'" Erica said.

Not long after getting inside the the Uber driver's Lexus, Erica's water broke.

"'I’m so sorry about your car.' It’s all I could think about," she recalled.

The driver then pulled into the Whole Foods parking lot in Sherman Oaks.

"He was honking his horn. It was an emergency situation," Niv said.

Niv called 911 about 8:41 p.m. when his wife shouted that she was going to have the baby right then and there.

"I caught him as he came out," Niv said.

The Los Angeles Fire Department confirmed the special delivery on its Facebook page and said the driver was the "primary assist for the successful delivery of a newborn in the vehicle." 

The department added that Erica and her new son were transported to the hospital in good condition and that Niv supported his wife.

The couple credits the 23-year-old Uber driver for being so calm and helpful during the baby's delivery. They reunited with the driver on Monday to celebrate a ride they’ll never forget.

Russia said Tuesday it reserves the right to retaliate against America for the "illegal seizure" of two Russian diplomatic compounds, NBC News reported.

Top Russian and U.S. officials met on Monday to discuss the compounds in Maryland and New York.

The mansions were seized in December under former President Barack Obama as part of sanctions over Russia's involvement in hacking the U.S. election, which Russia has denied.

"Russia stressed that if Washington does not address this and other concerns, including persistent efforts to hinder the operation of Russia’s diplomatic missions, Russia has the right to take retaliatory measures in accordance with the principle of reciprocity," the ministry said in a statement after Monday's meeting ended without a deal.

A New Britain man faces charges after police say he broke into a Bristol home and assaulted two people inside.

Police said Ryan Nash of Alexander Street in New Britain forced his way into a home on Lake Avenue in Bristol Monday around 1:30 p.m. and attacked a male and a female victim inside.

According to police, Nash used some kind of weapon to cut up the male victim while forcing the female victim aside.

Neither victim required hospital treatment.

Police said Nash knew the victims and the attack was not random. He was charged with first-degree burglary, second-degree assault and second-degree breach of peace.

Nash was held on a $25,000 bond and is due in court Tuesday.

Firefighters in Danbury are responding to a fire at a liquor store on North Street Tuesday morning.

Police confirmed a structure fire at the Hi-Way Package Store at 88 North St., but could not immediately provide details. Damage could be seen from the front of the building.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Fears of the United States engaging in a major war are growing among Americans, according to a Tuesday NBC News/SurveyMonkey National Security Poll.

A majority of Americans, 76 percent, are worried the U.S. could become engaged in a major war in the next four years. That number is up 10 points since February.

A strong plurality, 41 percent, believe North Korea is the greatest danger to America. Just 28 percent believe ISIS is the greatest danger, and 18 percent believe Russia is.

The NBC NewsSurveyMonkey poll was conducted online from July 10 through July 14, 2017, among a national sample of 5,347 adults. Respondents for this non-probability survey were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Results have an error estimate of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.

Hartford police cruisers were damaged when a suspect fled police as officers tried to conduct a motor vehicle stop early Tuesday morning, according to police.

Hartford Police Deputy Chief Brian Foley said officers were conducting a motor vehicle stop on Coleman Drive when the incident occurred. The suspect evaded the scene.

No one was hurt.

Foley said the incident may be related to the investigation into a homicide on Westland Street on Sunday, but could provide details.

The investigation is ongoing.

NBC Connecticut is working to gather more details.

For Jeff Mudgett, one day in early May was a moment of truth, or at least the next step in his pursuit of the truth.  Years of research and debate were coming down to this day in a Yeadon, Pennsylvania, cemetery.

“It was straight out of Alfred Hitchcock. It was scary,” Mudgett said.

Anthropologists and archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania were excavating the gravesite of Mudgett’s great-great grandfather Herman Webster Mudgett, more infamously known as serial killer and con-man H.H. Holmes.

“He’s evil personified! And I decided rather than running away from it, I decided to try to make something worthwhile of coming up with the truth,” Mudgett said.

Some credit Holmes with killing more than two hundred people in the late 1800’s.  Most of the killings are believed to have taken place in a building Holmes owned in Chicago, dubbed the “Murder Castle,” events described in the 2003 bestseller "The Devil in the White City." But Holmes was only convicted of one murder. In 1895 he was put on trial in Philadelphia for the murder of his business partner Benjamin Pitezel and was sentenced to die by hanging.

This is where Mudgett and others say the mystery begins.

According to newspaper accounts, Holmes was marched to the gallows at Moyamensing Prison where he was hanged. The prison was located on 1400 South 10th Street in Philadelphia before it closed in 1963 and was demolished in 1968. Holmes’ body was eventually interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon. Holmes requested his casket be encased in concrete so no one would steal his body. However, an 1898 newspaper article sparked the conspiracy theory that Holmes somehow escaped death at Moyamensing and ended up in South America.

Fast-forward to 2017 with Mudgett standing in what many believe to be the grave of his murderous relative. Descendants of Holmes were granted permission by a Delaware County judge to exhume the remains.

“It actually brought tears to my eyes,” Mudgett said. “And I was sitting there, trying to figure out, ‘why am I crying for this monster of a man?’”

As they dug, the group found a wooden box.

“We dug down to 10 feet and we found a fake pine box,” Mudgett said.

Mudgett told the NBC10 Investigators there was nothing in the box and he was ready to give up but the team continued to dig. Next, they ran into the cement reported on in 1890s newspaper accounts.

"And we found the cement sarcophagus, which many of the newspapers described back then. That’s when the hard work began,” Mudgett said.

After breaking through the cement, the team from Penn found what they were looking for.

“They carefully opened it up and we found a skeleton of a man, which we removed and took to the university,” Mudgett said.

Before the remains were taken away, Mudgett held the skull in his hand.

"To see that skeleton and that skull with the brains still inside, which is a phenomenon that the scientists still haven’t explained, scared the heck out of me," Mudgett said.

Once the remains were taking to Penn, the tests began to see if the bones belonged to Holmes.

“We were there when they took the DNA samples from the skull and, you know, put them in the proper packaging. They took some comparison DNA from me,” Mudgett said.

But Mudgett’s crusade to see if Holmes was actually buried in the grave has another angle.

"Here was a moment that could possibly change American and English history. And it was staring us in the face," he said.

Mudgett believes his great-great grandfather is not only H.H. Holmes but also Jack the Ripper.

"As of yet, I still haven’t seen anything which would cause me to change my mind regarding my theories that H.H. Holmes was Jack the Ripper," he said.

While there is skepticism among Holmes experts about the Jack the Ripper theory, it is another reason Mudgett and his team spent time searching for and finding the tomb where Holmes was believed to be buried.

The great-great grandson is currently starring in a History Channel show entitled “American Ripper.” The premise of the show has Mudgett connecting the two notorious killers as the same man.

“Jack the Ripper was the J-V compared to H.H. Holmes. In my opinion, the world should be trying to prove Jack the Ripper was H.H. Holmes, not me proving Holmes was Jack the Ripper,” Mudgett said.

The last piece of the puzzle seems to be the DNA taken from the found remains and Mudgett. Those results are not yet in.

"I have my beliefs, I have, you know, doubts. I want to see those DNA results to come up with a firm conclusion," he said. "I’m waiting for them right now. I could get a phone call as we speak, right now."

As for the remains, a lawyer for Holmes’ descendants told a judge they are still at Penn awaiting more testing. He believed they could be returned to Holy Cross Cemetery in late July.

If you thought your trips to the dentist were unbearable, just be glad you aren't this 538-pound grizzly.

An eight-person team of veterinarians knocked out Albert the Grizzly last week to give him a root canal and extract one of his teeth.

The veterinarians also ventured into the mouth of his buddy, Hank the Tiger, who had five root canals, which took more than three hours to complete. Both the creatures are from Lions, Tigers & Bears, a wildlife Sanctuary in Alpine, California.

The dental work on Hank took longer than expected and the team wasn't able to peform scheduled dental procedures on bobcats Mia and Clarence or Cassara the Leopard, according to a Facebook post from the sanctuary

Both Hank and Albert are in "excellent" health following their surgeries, the sanctuary wrote in the post. 

Lions, Tigers & Bears wildlife sanctuary is accepting donations to offset the cost of the dental procedures.

Hartford police are investigating after a 63-year-old Hartford man was shot and killed on Westland Street Sunday afternoon and police in Windsor Locks said they have found a stolen vehicle in connection with the shooting.

Police said the male victim, 63-year-old Jeffrey Worrell, was shot in the head and found in the area of Westland Street and Garden Street just before 2 p.m.

Major crimes was called in to investigate.

According to officers on scene, the shooter is at large.

Hartford Police said they have a description of a vehicle that left the area.

Windsor Locks police said Hartford police told them a 2013 Hyundai Sonate that was reported stolen from Windsor Locks on July 14 was used in connection with the homicide. The owner of the vehicle has been notified.

Employees at a Ford dealership in Ohio discovered more than 400 pounds of marijuana hidden inside cars shipped from Mexico earlier this month, authorities said.

A drug task force was called to the Ford dealership in Portage County on July 7 after a service department employee discovered roughly 30 pounds of pressed marijuana in the spare tire compartment of a Ford Fusion during a vehicle inspection, said Silverio Balzano, a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The marijuana was concealed in half-moon shaped package.

Investigators found more marijuana blocks in at least 14 other vehicles at Ohio dealerships. In total, authorities seized 400 pounds of pot valued at $1 million.

All the cars were shipped from Hermosillo, Mexico, to a CSX rail yard in Lordstown, Ohio. The vehicles involved were mostly Ford Fusions as well as one Lincoln MKZ, according to the DEA.

In a statement, Ford denied that the drugs were placed in cars from inside the Mexico plant and said it was working with the FBI and customs on an "extensive investigation," the Vindicator newspaper reported. 

In March, police in Dilworth, Minnesota, also discovered drugs packed in cars at an auto yard. According to a release posted on the department's Facebook page, police recovered 14 packages of marijuana totaling about 217 pounds from seven vehicles at the Dilworth Auto yard.

Federal investigators confirmed Monday that an Air Canada jet was descending toward a taxiway holding four other planes rather than the assigned runway and narrowly avoided disaster at San Francisco International Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it interviewed the captain of the Air Canada plane, will talk to the co-pilot Tuesday and finish talking to air traffic controllers by Wednesday.

The NTSB said the Air Canada Airbus A320 was cleared to land on runway 28R but instead lined up its approach for a parallel taxiway, which four other airliners were using to get in position to take off.

The NTSB said the Air Canada jet descended to less than 100 feet above the ground and flew over another plane before aborting the landing on July 7.

Aviation experts said Monday the close call was more a near miss and could have been disastrous.

"If he had not initiated the go around in the next 5-10 seconds, this would have been a disaster," said Max Trescott, a flight instructor and aviation blogger. "Every one to two years, an aircraft will land on a taxiway by mistake. What's odd about this is that the go-around happened so late in the game and was so close."

Air Canada declined to comment, citing the investigation.

The Air Canada jet, with 140 people on board, was arriving from Toronto. The NTSB statement adds details to the first official description of the close call, a summary released last week by Canadian safety authorities.

Also Monday, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, who was a passenger aboard the flight, released a letter to Air Canada in which he requested that the airline keep passengers informed of the results of any investigation. He said passengers were not told what was happening, and instead, the pilot "made a nonchalant announcement that he had to go around due to traffic at the airport."

Canada's Transportation Safety Board has given the flight data recorder, one of the so-called black boxes from the Air Canada plane, to the NTSB, which is leading the investigation.

The NTSB said it has security-camera video of the late-night incident and will release it in the coming months.

NBC Bay Area's Mark Matthews and Ian Cull contributed to this report.

A woman who was allegedly kidnapped and raped by a Georgia couple honeymooning in south Florida says she didn't know if she would survive the abuse, adding that her life has forever been changed by the experience.

"When I finally did escape, I was running in the street naked. As a woman, you're never going to feel the same about yourself," the 28-year-old victim said. "I don't know how I'm ever going to get over this."

Flanked by her attorney, the woman detailed the alleged abuse endured at the hands of a man and woman who are accused of a crime spree. The victim asked not to be identified during a press conference Monday with her attorney Carlos Silva.

"I didn't know if I was gonna get out alive," the victim said.

Rashada Hurley, 32, and Timothy Lowe, 37, were arrested last week on sexual battery, kidnapping and carjacking charges, two days after they were charged with indecent exposure for allegedly walking through two stores naked and grabbing sodas without paying.

The victim said she was in her car outside a Hialeah grocery store when Hurley approached her from the driver's side window and asked for directions. When she rolled down the window Hurley punched her in the head, knocking her out, the woman said.

According to the woman, when she regained consciousness, Lowe was in the driver's seat and Hurley was in the passenger side. She said she screamed and that's when Hurley put her in a chokehold and Lowe hit her in the face.

"The woman [is] holding my legs and the man keeps on asking the woman if she has the knife, and the woman is fumbling in her purse," the victim recalled. "At this point, I'm panicking. I'm terrified. I don't know what's going to happen."

Lowe then drove the victim’s car to a Motel 6 in Miami where Hurley booked a room using the victim’s credit card, police said.

"You never think you would pay to get raped," the woman said, choking back tears. 

Once inside, the couple took turns sexually abusing the victim and held her for hours against her will. When Hurley and Lowe became distracted with the victim's phone she ran out out of the motel room naked, a police report said.

"Of course, the first opportunity I saw, I took it," the woman said. 

The next day, the couple entered a convenience store naked and grabbed sodas without paying. Police arrested the naked couple a block away from the store.

"These people are not well, they are sick and demented," Silva said. 

The 28-year-old said she was stunned that the couple was allowed to book the room using her credit card without providing the motel proper identification. She said she wants the motel to look into this and prevent a similar situation from ever happening to anyone else.

"I don't want this to ever happen to any other woman. This can happen to anybody," the victim said. 

The victim and her attorney said they intend to file a lawsuit against Motel 6 for allowing the suspects use the woman's credit card without identification. Motel 6 has not responded to NBC 6's request for comment on the incident.

Police are investigating an attempted robbery at Sonic in Milford on Monday morning.

Police responded to the restaurant at 1365 Boston Post Road at 8:40 a.m. and learned that two males went into the restaurant, put an empty bag on the counter and told the victim to fill the bag with money.

Instead of handing over money, the victim walked away from the register and the would-be robbers left the building without any money and got into a dark SUV, according to police.

Both men were described as heavyset. One was wearing a gray sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and a red hat. The other was wearing a black shirt, black jeans and a red hat.

If anyone has information that could help identify the men, call the Milford police department detective bureau at (203) 877-1465, call Detective Sergeant Jeff Cortes at (203) 783-4761 or email jcortes@ci.milford.ct.us and reference case 3585-17.

A man accused of shooting a former Hartford firefighter during what investigators call a botched drug deal has pleaded not guilty. 

Jesus Perez, 37, of Hartford, has been charged with armed robbery and attempted murder in connection with the shooting of Jimmy Ngo in an industrial park in Rocky Hill in April. He pleaded not guilty in court Tuesday.

Ngo, who was an off-duty Hartford Fire Department until he was terminated from the department last week, was shot four to five times in the face and back.

The Hartford Fire Department terminated Ngo from his duties following an internal investigation and the announcement came just days after an arrest warrant detailing the shooting was released. Investigators allege Ngo was shot during a drug deal gone wrong.

According to court documents, Perez told police he planned to sell $35,000-worth of drugs with Ngo. Instead, police said, Perez shot and beat Ngo, who fought back.

Perez took off with the drugs and investigators later found the alleged shooter’s blood in an abandoned car in New Britain, according to authorities, and Perez told troopers Ngo was shot by another person.

Perez’s family had no comment after court. Ngo and his union representative have not returned NBC Connecticut’s requests for comment.

Five people were arrested and charged with trespassing at the state Capitol for refusing to leave Gov. Dannel Malloy’s office, according to State Capitol Police.

State Capitol Police said they responded at 12:15 p.m. after receiving a complaint that people were refusing to leave the governor’s office and arrested five people from West Hartford, West Haven, Unionville, Windsor and Norwich, who were charged with second-degree criminal trespass.

Police issued summons and all five people who were charged were released on a promise to appear in Hartford Superior Court on July 26.

Notorious jewel thief Doris Payne was arrested Monday for allegedly shoplifting at an Atlanta-area Walmart, NBC News reported.

Payne, known for her international jewel heists spanning six decades, claimed that she forgot to pay for the items she had shoplifted after taking medicine. A security officer at Walmart offered a different account, saying that Payne had piled items into her purse.

The 86-year-old woman, whose past offenses were chronicled in a Netflix documentary, was booked on a shoplifting charge and released from the City of Chamblee Jail after the items had been returned to the store.

"Thieving was the farthest thing from my mind," she told NBC News by phone on Tuesday.

NBC Connecticut Meteorologists are forecasting a heat wave to begin on Wednesday and continue through Friday.

High temperatures for inland Connecticut are expected to reach the low 90s.

A heat wave is declared when there a three consectuive days with temperatures at or above 90 degrees.

High temperatures tomorrow are forecasted to reach 93 degrees in the Hartford area with temperatures a bit cooler along the shoreline. 

Take a look at the temperature trend over the next seven days. Relief arrives by Saturday with high temperatures in the low to middle 80s.

INLAND:

SHORELINE:

In addition to the high temperatures the humidity will also be quite high. Very humid to oppressively humid conditions are expected over the next several days.

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences for a home invasion and botched robbery that ended with a fake bomb strapped to an executive at a New Britain, Connecticut, bank in 2015.

Michael Benanti, 45, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, was sentenced Tuesday to four life sentences and an additional 155 years after being convicted for involvement in a violent bank extortion and robbery spree that spanned four states.

He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and armed bank extortion, two counts of attempted armed bank extortion, one count of armed bank extortion, three counts of carjacking, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of being a previously-convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and 10 counts of using, carrying and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence

The crime happened on Feb. 23, 2015, when two masked men, Benanti and Brian Withman, of Maine, broke into the Bristol home of a 46-year-old Matthew Yussman, a credit union manager, strapped a fake explosive device to him and tied his mom to a bed, authorities said.

Police said the intruders demanded Yussman drive them to Achieve Financial Credit Union in New Britain and empty the vault, but the suspects eventually fled with nothing.

Yussman's mother described finding her son face-down in the garage at their Bristol home with his hands tied and said she overheard two assailants saying they owed money and would kill Yussman and his mother if they didn't pay up.

Shortly after the incident, FBI started to investigate the case.

Tennessee investigators said Withman and Benanti committed similar crimes in their state: multiple attempts to extort money from federal credit union employees by taking family members hostage.

Withman pleaded guilty in March 2016 in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The swimming areas at Rocky Neck State Park in Niantic and Mashamoquet Brook State Park in Pomfret have both reopened after being closed over poor water quality, according to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Both swim areas were closed Thursday when routine DEEP testing showed high levels of bacteria in the water. The water was retested Monday and came back at a level safe for swimming.

Two other state swimming areas, Gay City State Park in Hebron and Pachaug State Forest in Voluntown, remain closed. The water will be retested Thursday and results are expected Friday.