A Meriden woman is accused of using her 12-year-old son to help her shoplift from a local grocery store.

Meriden police said Erica Maisonet shoplifted from Stop & Shop Saturday by putting items into a bag that her 12-year-old son was holding. She attempted to shoplift $700-worth of merchandise, police said.

Maisonet was stopped when the store alarm went off as they were exiting the store. She was arrested and charged with larceny and risk of injury to a minor.

A Wolcott gas station employee is accused of stealing thousands of dollars' worth of lottery tickets from her employer.

Wolcott police arrested Juliana Perillo on larceny charges Monday. Perillo, who worked at Petro Pat’s, faked numbers on a store log sheet to make it appear as though customers had returned lottery tickets for a refund. She then used the faked refund money to buy tickets, according to police.

Perillo stole more than $4,400-worth of tickets in one month, police said. Authorities believe the scheme went on for 10 months.

Perillo was charged with first-degree larceny. She was released on a promise to appear and is next scheduled to appear in court on July 2.

Mark Dieterle had sticker shock when he opened his March wireless statement.

Inside was a bill for $1,001.77. Dieterle said that’s ten times the amount he usually pays.

According to his statement, Dieterle went well over his monthly data allowance.

Dieterle had 349 MB to use that month but his wireless bill said he used 13,753 MB. The extra usage totaled $900.

Dieterle immediately questioned the charges. He told NBC Connecticut Responds the extra line for his tablet costs $10 a month. He added that the tablet is connected to his home WiFi and never leaves his nightstand.

Dieterle said the customer service agent he spoke with agreed. The agent told Dieterle he would submit a request for a $900 credit.

When Dieterle called back a few days later, a different agent told him a $450 credit was applied to Dieterle’s account. Dieterle said the agent could not explain why he did not receive the full credit.

That’s when Dieterle emailed Responds for help.

After our consumer team asked the company to investigate, Dieterle said he received a call from the wireless carrier, letting him know the remaining balance was wiped out.

The employees at New Horizon Living Centers in Bristol are dedicated to helping others. Recently, they found themselves in need of assistance.

Center Director Mark Crandall told NBC Connecticut he filed a warranty claim on the center’s broken microwave.

After four repair attempts, it still wasn’t working. So a technician submitted a request to the warranty company for a replacement.

But three months later, Crandall said the request was still pending approval. He reached out to NBC Connecticut Responds for help.

We explained the situation to the warranty company, and a representative said they would get everything straightened out.

A few days later, Crandall got the go-ahead to pick out a new microwave, with a $500 allowance. The company delivered and installed it free of charge.

Just off Interstate 91 in Hartford is perhaps the biggest single infrastructure project in Connecticut.

“It’s probably one of the largest, if not the largest project going on in Connecticut right now, so it is very exciting for us,” said Susan Negrelli, the director of engineering for the Metropolitan District, the agency responsible for water treatment.

The construction project consists of two tunnels that each require 225-foot holes to be drilled into the ground. One of the holes is for a pump station, while the other is for the construction project itself that will eventually lead to a four-mile tunnel being bored through the South End of Hartford, ending in West Hartford near New Park Avenue.

The South End of Hartford, particularly near Franklin Avenue and Wethersfield Avenue have been prone to flooding for decades.

“This project will provide relief in the southern Hartford area,” Negrelli said. “We will completely eliminate the combined sewer overflows into Wethersfield Cove and in the South Hartford area and so, environmentally, that’s huge.”

The centerpiece of the 18-month long drilling project is the Tunnel Boring Machine, or TBM as it’s known.

The red face consists of dozens of black wheels that act as the teeth. They grind the bedrock down, which then mixes with water and chemicals for disposal, and that material is then routed to a conveyor belt where it will travel four miles.

The TBM will be able to drill more than 70 feet per day when it’s operational, however, geological factors will determine a day’s progress.

“If you’re in solid rock or maybe you’re going through a fault area, if you have groundwater coming in you’ll have to grout ahead so there are different conditions underground that will dictate how fast they can move,” Negrelli said.

This project is part of a seven-year process, but this phase is the most expensive at more than $250 million. The cost was picked up in part by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and the rest will be covered by MDC ratepayers.

A woman in Canton, Connecticut, saw the lights of her car go off Friday night and soon realized the culprit was not a burglar. It was an adult bear and the amount of damage it did was astounding. 

Linda Morad said she was housesitting for a friend who was on vacation when she saw the lights of her car going off. 

“I had my phone on 911 and I came partially down toward the car, and I heard noise, so I hit the send button on the 911,” Morad said. 

She did not see the culprit through the tinted glass and told police what she heard. Officers showed up in minutes. 

“And from inside the house, I saw them open the door and let the bear out – a full-sized bear,” Morad said. 

Then, police warned her about the condition of her car. 

“They said, ‘You’re not going to believe what your car looks like.’ I thought, ‘Well, I’ll clean it tomorrow’” Morad said. 

Then she saw the damage. The dashboard, the leather seats, the trunk and the hatchback were all torn to pieces. 

“I don’t think this could be cleaned!” Morad said. 

The bear had somehow gotten in through the unlocked driver’s side door of the vehicle, according to Morad. 

“And the door closed behind him, and apparently he was frantic,” she said. 

So now, Morad is borrowing a car, locking the doors and waiting on the insurance adjuster. 

She said she does not blame the bear. 

“This is a fluke. It’s like getting struck by lightning or hitting the lottery. How many times would it ever happen?” Morad said. 

Bears are becoming more common in Connecticut as the population grows, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, and they urge people to take some precautions to avoid attracting bears. That includes keeping garbage cans in the garage. See more tips here.  

In the past year, there have been nearly 6,900 bear sightings in Connecticut, including 201 in Canton. 

A Minnesota man is accused of running a snow removal scam in nine states, including Connecticut.

In February 2018, three viewers contacted NBC Connecticut Responds about Snow Angels LLC. All three consumers said they pre-paid the company for snow removal services they didn’t receive. Then the company shut down without warning.

Snow Angels LLC is owned by Matthew Erickson, 31, of Cottage Grove, Minn.

Erickson is currently awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, where he is facing five counts of theft.

According to a criminal complaint filed by the Wisconsin Attorney General, Erickson solicited customers online for pre-paid snow removal services, which he did not provide. The AG’s Office said most of the alleged victims are over the age of 60.

During the course of the investigation in Wisconsin, authorities uncovered similar complaints against Erickson in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New York and Rhode Island.

Authorities estimate Erickson collected $58,000 from more than 100 victims.

Investigators told NBC Connecticut Responds they had identified 10 potential victims in Connecticut. We provided them with the names of two additional Snow Angels customers who reached out to us.

John Provini contracted with Snow Angels to clear snow from his parents’ home in Newington. He paid $478 for coverage from October 2017 through May 2018. Provini said the company showed up twice. Then in February, he received an email from Snow Angels stating the company was shutting down.

When NBC Connecticut Responds contacted Snow Angels at the time, we received the following response by email:

“Regrettably, our company does not have the financial ability to continue providing service this season. We have managed to make it half way through winter, providing service to our customers. If we were out to scam anyone, we would not have spent so much money obtaining leads, making sales, and providing service as far as we have already following three snow events. We have since worked hard to achieve the route density necessary to make ends meet. There are no remaining assets nor is there any future for the company.”

Provini filed a dispute through his credit card company and got his money back. But he knows others weren’t as lucky.

“There’s a lot of people like my parents out there, elderly that really got taken. They really need the money. I hope they get something back,” he said.

Law enforcement officials told NBC Connecticut they expect to file more charges.

Online court records do not list an attorney for Erickson.

A sinkhole has opened up on the White House grounds and is "growing larger by the day," according to reporters who first spotted the sunken turf.

The sinkhole was found Sunday on the North Lawn of the White House, near the entrance to the press briefing room, a National Park Service spokeswoman said Tuesday evening.

Photos from reporters who first spotted the sinkhole show that it's no more than a few feet wide. But White House reporter Steve Herman, of Voice of America, tweeted that it had grown since he first spotted it over the weekend, and another sinkhole has opened next to it. 

Sinkholes are common in the D.C. area after heavy rain, as the area has had in the past week, NPS spokeswoman Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles said. The National Park Service, which oversees the White House grounds, said it is monitoring the sinkhole and evaluating how to respond.

"We do not believe it poses any risk to the White House or is representative of a larger problem," Anzelmo-Sarles said.

Known to swallow cars and homes, sinkholes are generally formed when water erodes the earth's surface layer.

One year ago, a sinkhole also opened up in front of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Palm Beach officials said a water main caused that sinkhole.

The coincidence set social media alight with wisecracks about what the sinkhole means and by Tuesday afternoon the sinkhole had a parody Twitter account.

"Can neither confirm nor deny I am the hole dug from China #sinkhole #WhiteHouse #whitehousesinkhole," The White House Sinkhole wrote in a tweet.

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Thousands of people are expected to fill Cadet Memorial Field at the Coast Guard Academy Wednesday for the 137th Annual Commencement Ceremony.

During the ceremonies, 209 cadets will graduate and Vice President Mike Pence is set tapped to make the keynote speech.

All New London Police Department staff is working Wednesday. Officers use the same plans every year they run a large event at the Coast Guard Academy, according to Chief Peter Reichard. But this year there will be less mutual aid.

“We haven’t had the number of reports of protesters coming in as they were last year like we did when President Trump was in town,” Reichard said.

Police have been conducting their own intelligence online. There have been no permits for protest, according to Reichard. Signs on posts and masks are not allowed. Peaceful protests are.

City of New London staff has spent the last couple of days posting about 80 “no parking” signs on roads near the academy. Restrictions are in effect on River Ridge Road, Deshon Street, Nameaug Avenue, Oneco Avenue, Farnsworth Street, Winchester Road and Uncas Avenue beginning at 5 a.m. on May 23.

Riverside Park is also closed to the public.

Town of Groton Police are shutting down Tower Avenue, High Rock Road, and Poquonnock Road west of Trails Corner.

Officers are providing protection with the transport of Vice President Pence from the Groton-New London Airport and back.

City of Groton Police will assist with street closures and traffic while the Vice President is in transit. Waterford Police will provide a water patrol. State police will assist with the escort.

Agent Peter Quinn with the U.S. Secret Service said I-95 will be closed to traffic when the vice president is on the road. While the closures do not have a set time, he said they will last approximately 10 minutes each.

The New London Police Department is constantly in contact with the Secret Service throughout the year but when there is a dignitary visit involved, the number of meetings amplify, according to Reichard.

“Whenever someone of that caliber comes to the base, we work with the White House staff or whoever their staff of choice is, and they will come through and make sure all the extra security they need is set in place. That can include anything from having dogs run across the base, to having them here as well, to utilizing our own staff and using our own procedures,” said LTJG Alexis Davis, a public affairs officer with the Coast Guard Academy.

The campus was bustling with last-minute preparations Tuesday from wiring the sound system to hanging an American flag to making sure final plans with White House Staff are set.

“Any time we have a graduation it involves a lot of planning and a lot of different organizations. We are working with White House staff and local police departments to ensure safety of everyone that’s going to be coming on board,” said PA3 Nicole Foguth, a public affairs specialist for the Coast Guard Academy.

Along with security, there will be cooling stations where guests can get water an escape the sun.

“What college student could tell you that the Vice President is speaking at my graduation? That is awesome,” said Cadet Panashe Mutombo, of Bel Air, Maryland.

Mutombo’s graduating Wednesday and is the first person in his family to graduate from college. He has more than a dozen relatives in town for the ceremony, including some from South Africa.

“I can’t believe after four, five, years actually, that I’m finally able to live my dream come true of being an officer in the military,” Mutombo said. He said he’s always dreamed of helping people and exploring the world. The Coast Guard was able to help him live out that goal.

With 3,000 people expected to attend the graduation, there’s spillover to nearby businesses. Mutombo’s family planned ahead by renting a house more than a year out.

People did the same when it came to booking rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn in Groton, which sold out Tuesday night, according to Director of Sales & Marketing Jocelyn Hawley.

Restaurants, like Captain Scott’s Lobster Dock in New London have also seen an increased crowd.

“We’ve been busy with graduations both from the Coast Guard Academy, Connecticut College and Mitchell College,” said owner Susan Tierney. “So we’ve had a busy couple of weeks even with the (rainy) weather.”

A week after severe storms and multiple tornadoes hit the state, the town of Southbury is ending its state of emergency.

There are signs of progress in hard-hit communities. Southbury leaders think they are making so much head-way that a state of emergency declaration will end Wednesday.

There are still fallen trees all around town. Many took down power lines, leaving at one point nearly the entire community in the dark.

“There’s progress. It’s just overwhelming. You just think about how much more there is to do. But really we have done a lot,” said resident Diane Barry.

Trees fell all across Barry’s property, and took out part of a garage and a boat.

“I grew up in the Midwest so I know what tornadoes are about. But it was just so fast,” she told NBC Connecticut.

“A lot of crashing. A lot of wind. A lot of things hitting the house.”

Neighbors worked together to help crews reopen roads. Across town, dozens of previously blocked roads have been cleared, kids are back in school and hundreds of miles of lines have been repaired.

“It was a herculean effort to get this to where we are. The community pulled together, both private contractors to citizens to our town crews,” said Southbury First Selectman Jeff Manville.

At a meeting Tuesday the Board of Selectman decided to let the declared state of emergency end Wednesday. This is the town transitions from responding to a disaster to recovering from it.

“The town’s commitment to its citizens and the safety of its citizens has always been there,” Manville said.

For homeowners there’s still a lot of uncertainty. That includes how much the destruction will end up costing them as try to figure how much insurance might cover.

“As far as the percentage of people who were affected in Southbury, I don’t think it’s a huge number. It’s just that the number that was affected it was pretty devastating,” Barry said.

The selectmen also voted to help speed up repairs by allowing the first selectman to spend up to $50,000 on a recovery job. That allows him to bypass the normal bid process.

Chicago-area relatives of a 31-year-old mother fatally shot inside her Texas apartment say Yesenia Gutierrez died trying to protect her 3-year-old son from armed burglars.

Emotionally overcome, Lorena Gutierrez told NBC 5 Tuesday her family in Blue Island is still in shock over the murder of her older sister Yesenia.

“She was kind, helpful," she said. "She put her kids before anything."

Police say at around midday Friday two boys, aged 13 and 14, had been passing by Yesenia Gutierrez’s Fort Worth apartment when they peered inside and saw a video game console. One of the teens told police they thought the robbery would be an "easy lick." 

The other teen, who told police he is a member of the Crips street gang, said he kicked down the door to Gutierrez's apartment and demanded her cell phone. He said the mother willingly handed over her iPhone. As she tried to keep the armed teens from entering the room where her toddler was sleeping, she was fatally shot in the back of the head, Fort Worth police said.

Gutierrez’s husband raced home and found his wife's lifeless body on the kitchen floor. Their 3-year-old son was unharmed.

"Each night when I close my eyes, the image of how I found my wife haunts me," he said.

Gutierez's family in the Chicago area has set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to bring her remains back to Illinois for funeral services.

"She was our hero," Lorena said of her older sister. "I would always look up to her."

The boys were arrested following a traffic stop in which police linked them to the shooting. Investigators discovered a 9mm pistol during the stop that was later forensically linked to the shell casings discovered in Gutierrez's apartment. Each faces one count of capital murder.

The boys’ names were not released because they are juveniles.

“We just want justice for our sister," Lorena said. "She didn’t deserve this."

A dozen homes in Newtown have been condemned due to damage from last week’s storms, according to the first selectman.

First Selectman Daniel Rosenthal confirmed that 10 homes in the Lakeview Terrace area were condemned, and another two in the Lake Zoar area. Some of them may be reconstructed, Rosenthal said.

Newtown was one of several hard-hit towns after tornadoes and powerful downbursts hit the state last week. Thousands of people were without power for days. Eversource estimated that across the state the storm brought down more than 1,900 poles and 300 miles worth of power lines.

In the first days after the storm, tree removal companies were working non-stop.

“Pretty hectic. It’s been – I don’t know how to describe it really. I’ve seen this stuff before, storm damage, but not to this magnitude,” said Rob McCulloch of Newtown Arbor Services in an interview with NBC Connecticut last week.

A week later, there is still much cleanup left in Newtown. As of noon Tuesday, less than 1 percent of town was left without power, but Eversource crews remained in town working to fully restore power and to clean up fluid leaks from transformers damaged in the storm.

Various town facilities have been opened for residents to charge electronics or access water. The transfer station has been open and available for free brush disposal, and dumpsters were made available for residents to throw out spoiled food.

For a full list of resources, visit the Newtown town website here. 

A New Britain man faces charges after a fatal hit-and-run crash over the weekend.

Police arrested 22-year-old Jonathan Rafael Soto Tuesday. Police allege that Soto was the driver of a vehicle that struck 64-year-old Angel Colon on Allen Street Saturday afternoon.

Colon suffered serious injuries and was transported to the hospital, where he later died.

Soto turned himself into police headquarters when he learned of the warrant for his arrest, police said. Soto is charged with negligent homicide with a motor vehicle, evading responsibility in operating of motor vehicle resulting in death, and illegal operation of a motor vehicle with minimal insurance.

He was held on a $500,000 bond and is due in court on Wednesday.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information should contact Sgt. Steven King of the New Britain Police Traffic Unit at 860-826-3071.

A business partner of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen known as the Taxi King has agreed to cooperate with the government as part of a plea deal, a person with direct knowledge of the proceedings told NBC News.

Evgeny Freidman, 47, pleaded guilty Tuesday to a low-level felony in New York state court for stealing nearly $5 million in state taxes and has agreed to cooperate in state or federal investigations. The deal, in which he will pay the state $5 million but avoid jail time, was originally reported by The New York Times.

For years, Freidman, a Russian immigrant, has managed Cohen's taxi medallions, which give owners the right to operate New York City yellow cabs. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is probing alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, referred an ongoing investigation of Michael Cohen to federal prosecutors in New York.

Freidman's plea deal means he could potentially testify in any criminal case related to Cohen. Cohen has long served as a personal attorney to President Donald Trump.

The New York attorney general's office, U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan and an attorney for Freidman declined to comment.

The Salesforce Tower in San Francisco opened for business back in January, but the skyline-altering skyscraper was christened with an official grand opening ceremony Tuesday morning.

Stretching into the sky at 1,070 feet, Salesforce Tower is now the tallest building in San Francisco and the tallest office building in California. It is currently the second tallest building on the West Coast, behind the Beverly Wilshire Grand Center in Los Angeles, which opened last year.

The company celebrated the event by having a dancer from the famous San Francisco musical "Beach Blanket Babylon" sing with a hat showing off the City by the Bay's famous landmarks — which now includes Salesforce Tower. There was also a Michael Jackson cover band.

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell, former Mayor Willie Brown and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spoke during the ribbon-cutting ceremony about the project's success. But Benioff also addressed the city's economic divide and the thousands of homeless people who are living on its streets every day.

“We see a city undergoing great change, but also facing urgent challenges. Great progress — neighborhoods and businesses that are booming — but also communities and people that feel forgotten. We see extraordinary wealth, a community with over 70 billionaires, but also grinding poverty in the shadow of this building,” he said. “We see companies unleashing incredible innovations, but also families in deep distress, struggling to survive another day."

"Our unemployment in San Francisco stands at 2.1 percent ... the lowest in our city's history," Benioff said, before adding that "there are children and families sleeping in cars, couch surfing, sleeping in the streets some nights and hotels other nights."

Benioff said that San Francisco’s streets need to be as stunning as its skyline: “It’s going to take a lot of time and money, but this is a solvable problem.”

He stressed that technology companies have to take responsibility for their community. "We are part of the city’s fabric, how can we look away from it,” he said. "Every technology company has the ability to participate ... either through volunteering, to give employees time off to participate in the community ... also money, the ability to give money."

Benioff said the company would use some of its profits to help the homeless community, adding that that Salesforce was donating $1.5 million to Hamilton Families’ Heading Home Initiative. He promised to help raise $200 million more to help provide services for the homeless.

"I want them to remember there's people that are thinking about them," he said.

At one point, a few people in the crowd yelled: "Benioff for mayor."

On Tuesday night, the light installation on top of the tower — the nation's tallest public art − will turn on permanently.

Designed by San Francisco artist Jim Campbell, the artwork will be located at the crown of the tower where the building rises 150 feet beyond the highest occupied floor.

"I’m less stressed about it now and more excited because we’ve seen what it looks like with imagery up there," Campbell told NBC Bay Area in an interview. "I’m very happy with the visual results."

Campbell is installing cameras at Ocean Beach, Golden Gate Park and along the Embarcadero. Each day’s images will create that evening’s projection — sort of like a daily civic diary. Campbell’s mind is already flying to other possibilities. One idea is to project the age of the building each night. Another: post a camera in an unusual location to capture daily life.

"I’m looking at putting one up at the dump because there’s a great shot of birds flying there and that’s kind of an indicator of how much garbage the city is generating," Campbell said.

After four years of development, Campbell spent the last month honing the installation on-site with unannounced tests that sent Twitter and Facebook into a tizzy as users posted pictures and videos of the illuminated tower.

The test images have included video of crowds walking along Market Street, a soccer game and ocean waves. For the first year of the project, Campbell will be involved coordinating the images daily. But as prominent as the installation is, Campbell said it’s intended to fade into the skyline.

"I’m not designing something for people to go look at," Campbell said, "I’m designing something for people to notice when they happen to glance over at it."

Some fast facts about the Salesforce Tower:

• It’s 7 feet taller than the Eiffel Tower
• It’s as tall as 3.5 Statues of Liberty stacked on top of each other
  
• 5 million pounds of rebar were used to construct the building, which weighs 368 million pounds
• The building’s foundation is socketed into bedrock more than 318 feet in the ground
• The foundation is as thick as a double-decker bus
• The Tower surpasses San Francisco's famous Transamerica building by more than 200 feet
• On a clear day, you can see the Farallon Islands 27 miles away from the top

Jose Ivan Nunez Martinez and his American husband, Paul Frame, thought they were walking into a routine green card interview in January. Instead, the 37-year-old Nunez Martinez, who was born in Michoacan, Mexico, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Nearly four months later, the pair is still fighting for Nunez Martinez's release. 

He has been detained at York County Prison without a bond hearing since Jan. 31. On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia law firm DLA Piper LLP filed a legal complaint on behalf of the couple, calling for an end to Nunez Martinez’s detention.

“I am very worried for his well-being,” Frame said. “The level of anxiety and sadness that I feel when I think about him at the detention center or when I visit him is unreal.”

The couple first met in August 2014. Nunez Martinez had already been living in the United States for more than a decade working as a mechanic and janitor. Two years after meeting, Frame and Nunez Martinez got married. The freedom to do so was one of the driving factors behind his decision to emigrate from Mexico.

Nunez Martinez’s friend, also a gay man, was killed in 2001. That same year, Nunez Martinez fled to the border and only traveled back once in 2010 when his mother became ill. When he attempted to return, Nunez Martinez received an expedited removal order and was sent back to Mexico. He re-entered a few months later and ICE reinstated his prior order of expedited removal.

Nunez Martinez was apprehended during a mandatory interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for processing immigration and naturalization applications. Frame had already submitted a petition to make his husband a legal citizen, a fairly routine procedure that thousands of couples undergo after a foreign national marries an American citizen.

But before Nunez Martinez’s case was heard, ICE arrested him.

“When an individual has been ordered removed and is encountered by ICE, ICE reactivates the prior order,” Audrey Allen, one of the lawyers working on the case, told NBC News in February. 

Allen added that the only relief available to him would be a Withholding of Removal claim, which is similar to an asylum claim.

The couple believes they have a valid claim to keep Nunez Martinez in the U.S. Not only are they already married, but Nunez Martinez fears for his life if he were to return to Mexico.

“He thought he would be safer here in the U.S.,” Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said. “His detention is cruel and unjust, and it discourages people who have a legal path to staying here from pursuing it.”

Meanwhile, 49 foreign nationals were arrested in Philadelphia area in the past week, according to ICE. They include people from Jamaica, Mexico, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. 

Plainfield police have arrested two men who are accused of stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of steel from Tilcon. 

Police said they received a complaint from the company on Dec. 17 after a large amount of steel equipment, estimated at approximately $6,700, was stolen from the business property. 

Arrest warrants were approved and police arrested 38-year-old Kevin Richmond and 42-year-old Jason Gallow on Tuesday. 

Gallow was charged with larceny in the third degree, criminal trespass in the third degree and criminal impersonation. 

Richmond was charged with larceny in the third degree and criminal trespass in the third degree. 

They are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.

Lightning started the fire at a house in Old Lyme, according to officials.

The fire chief said lightning struck a tree on Talcott Farm Road around 4 a.m. Wednesday and traveled underground through the wires to a house, setting the basement on fire.

The fire then spread through the house. A boat caught fire as well.

Fire chief Tom Risom said he saw heavy fire coming from the basement door. The moment he stepped inside, his carbon monoxide sense started sounding.

“If you get into an area where you can’t see or smell anything, they’ll tell you you’re in a bad situation. They went off immediately when I entered the house and I said, ‘We’re out of here,’ and I physically took him out of the house,” Risom said.

The couple who lives in the home is OK, officials said, but they might have to stay someone else temporarily because the entire house filled with smoke.

Local officials are checking on structural issues.

Mutual aid was called in from Essex and Old Saybrook.

Vice President Mike Pence made the trip to Connecticut Wednesday for the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s 137th Annual Commencement Ceremony, where he delivered the keynote address.

“On behalf of your commander in chief, welcome aboard and welcome to the good fight,” Pence said to the 209 cadets graduating.

“Many people spend their entire lives looking for a calling. You found yours early,” Pence said. “You were called to serve the greatest nation on earth.”

During his speech, Pence put a focus on family and told the cadets they are the pride of their families and the American people.

“I can tell you today when your loved ones fix those bars on your shoulders it will be one of the proudest days of their lives and I know what I’m talking about,” Pence said. “Other than my wedding day, I count the day that Karen and I fixed the bars on our son’s shoulders as one of the proudest days of our lives.”

He went on to tell the graduates that President Donald Trump will have their back as they carry out their duties.

“Over the past 16 months, President Trump has already taken decisive action to rebuild our military; to restore the arsenal of democracy; to give our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and our great Coast Guard the resources and the training you’ll need to accomplish your mission and come home soon,” Pence said.

The New London Police Department has had all staff members working today and officers use the same plans every year they run a large event at the Coast Guard Academy, according to Chief Peter Reichard. But this year there will be less mutual aid.

“We haven’t had the number of reports of protesters coming in as they were last year like we did when President Trump was in town,” Reichard said.

Signs on posts and masks are not allowed. Peaceful protests are.

Reichard said Tuesday there had been no permits for protest.

Some protesters did line the area around Williams Street and Mohegan Avenue Parkway, holding signs including “Healthcare Not Warfare,” “Honk for the Dreamers,” “Declare eternal hostility to poverty, racism and militarism,” and more.

“No parking” signs have been placed on roads near the academy and restrictions are in effect on River Ridge Road, Deshon Street, Nameaug Avenue, Oneco Avenue, Farnsworth Street, Winchester Road and Uncas Avenue.

Riverside Park is also closed to the public. Crews from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Bluff Point State Park will also be closed Wednesday.

Town of Groton Police are shutting down Tower Avenue, High Rock Road, and Poquonnock Road west of Trails Corner.

Officers are providing protection with the transport of Vice President Pence from the Groton-New London Airport and back.

City of Groton Police will assist with street closures and traffic while the Vice President is in transit. Waterford Police will provide a water patrol. State police will assist with the escort.

Agent Peter Quinn with the U.S. Secret Service said Interstate 95 will be closed to traffic when the vice president is on the road. While the closures do not have a set time, he said they will last approximately 10 minutes each.

President Donald Trump, who has long complained the Russia investigation is a  "witch hunt," is now weaponizing the agencies he's cast as enemies to argue he is the victim of misconduct at the highest level of law enforcement, NBC News reported.

Trump put pressure on Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray to ask the Justice Department inspector general to expand its look at the investigation into the Trump campaign. They also agreed to sharing classified information with congressional Republicans and other national security officials.

Experts on the Constitution say the president's latest moves may be legal, but they are outside the normal behavior of a president after the Watergate scandal. And they said the attacks on federal institutions and players could amount to obstruction of justice.

"The problem is that things that are normally respected are disrespected in this administration, such as the distance the president should have from the Justice Department," said Richard Ben-Veniste, an an assistant special prosecutor in charge of the Watergate Task Force.