Anxious parents turned up at Gaffney School in New Britain Monday when their children failed to make it to their bus stops after their first day of summer enrichment programming through the Consolidated School District of New Britain, and one mother said she wants answers about how it happened.

The New Britain Schools superintendent called the drop-off issues “difficulties.” But a parent that spoke with NBC Connecticut said what happened was a lot worse than that, and it’s making her question how well the school district is handling the transportation of its children.

“I was very scared. I was like my daughter is probably on the bus like where’s mommy?” Loretta Robinson told NBC Connecticut.

Robinson said she spent more than an hour unable to locate her 8-year-old daughter.

“I’m like where’s my kid? Where is she at? And what’s going on?” Robinson said.

Robinson’s child, who has special needs, was one of several New Britain children who began the first day of the school district's summer enrichment program Monday, but at the end of the day didn’t get dropped off at their designated neighborhood bus stop because, according to the district, the bus drivers got lost taking kids home.

“No phone calls. No nothing saying hey we got your child, we’re running late, this is what happened. Nothing,” Robinson said.

A spokesperson for the school district said several drivers at the district’s new transportation company “First Student” were unfamiliar with their routes, and didn’t drop their kids at the proper stops. The district said when they became aware of the issues, they ordered every bus carrying children back to the schools where they picked them up. Three buses carrying approximately two dozen students had to return.

But Robinson said nobody gave that information to her or the other parents at Gaffney Elementary School, where they were anxiously searching for their kids. So she started making calls on her own.

“They were coordinating… was the words that they used… coordinating the children back to the school,” she said.

Superintendent Nancy Sarra released the following statement:

Today was the first day of our summer enrichment programs throughout the school district. We had over 800 students in attendance from across the city.

While we experienced some difficulties with drop-offs at particular locations throughout the city, all students are safe at home.

Our transportation manager is working closely with First Student to ensure that our students are brought home in a timely manner as we continue our summer programming.

Robinson said she’s not sure it’s enough. She’s rethinking whether she’ll trust to put her daughter on those buses again this summer.

“I am going to make some phone calls in the morning…some serious phone calls and we’re really going to have a conversation and see what goes from there,” Robinson said.

A spokesperson for the school district said that Tuesday the same drivers that got lost will be out on the roads, but in between their morning pickups and afternoon drop-offs they’ll be doing test runs of the routes.

NBC Connecticut reached out to First Student for comment, but has yet to hear back.

A Milford home had to be demolished after an accident while raising the home for repairs caused the structure to become unsafe, according to Milford fire officials.

Fire officials said the home was being raised for repairs like many others following the devastation from powerful storms like Sandy and Irene.

“As they were raising the house itself something went awry and the house shifted, came off of the supporting mechanisms that were lifting it into place and was suspended in the air, although in a very precarious position and unstable position,” explained Milford Fire Battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi.

A worker injured his wrist during the incident and was taken to Milford Hospital for treatment. Fire officials said the injuries did not appear severe.

Emergency crews, OSHA, and the city of Milford building officials were called to the scene and determined the best option was to demolish the home. Nearby homes were evacuated as a precaution before the home was pulled down.

“If the house shifted a little too far one way it had the potential to actually make contact with one of the other homes,” Fabrizi said.

Dramatic video shows the moment the home was taken down.

Fabrizi said the homeowners had been about three weeks away from moving back into the home.

Coleman Harbor lives in the area and knows the family.

“I know the people. I was very sorry for their loss and disruption of dreams," he said.

OSHA and the Milford building official are expected to investigate what went wrong.

Norwich police are investigating a “house for rent” scam where they said a fake owner is asking perspective renters to send to mail money to an out of state address with the promise to FedEx the keys.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Norwich Police Capt. James Veiga.

Veiga said the department got a call from someone who was scammed and started to investigate. Police said the phone number and email address from the suspect are fictitious.

When it comes to finding a product online, Veiga said prospective buyers or renters should meet with the seller face-to-face, never wire money. It’s a red flag when a landlord will not meet in person. A prospective buyer can even contact their health department or local building official who might have information on the property listed.

“Over the last few years we’ve seen many more internet-type scams. Scams where the person will claim they’re heading over to Afghanistan, they need to sell a car, they need to rent an apartment out. They’ll give it to you at a fantastic deal if you send the money right away,” Veiga said.

Craigslist has a very detailed “Avoid Scams & Fraud” page. Listed at the top, highlighted in yellow, it reads “Deal locally, face-to-face—follow this one rule and avoid 99 percent of scam attempts.” It also lists how to recognize scams on the site.

Veiga said if a person believes they were scammed or is concerned about a potential scam to contact police.

William Raveis Real Estate Realtor Steve Taylor said the safest bet is to hire a real estate agent.

“Because the agents know the ins and outs. They have a way, a resource, to do the background work and the background check,” Taylor said, adding that using an agent is at no cost to the buyer or tenant.

It’s something Debra Guntner knows all too well. Her daughter-in-law was almost a victim to a very similar scheme on Craigslist.

“They said it was for rent and also said you send the money and we’ll send you the keys. And they even sent her a contract,” Guntner said.

Guntner tracked down the real estate agent who was actually selling the home—it wasn’t even for rent. Which is why she heeds the warning to be careful on the web. Some scams can be convincing – it even took her daughter-in-law a number of days to wrap her head around what was happening.

“It was so real, it took me time to convince her. But she did come around,” Guntner said.

A 3-year-old girl was injured when a pickup crashed into a building on Buddington Road in Groton Monday.

Authorities said the vehicle hit a tree before crashing into the building at 70 Buddington Road. There is damage to the pickup and the building.

Sgt. Paul Reams with Groton Police confirmed a 3-year-old girl in the pickup was injured, but the extent of those injuries was not immediately clear.

Reams said the child's father was the driver, and that the vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run crash on Drozdyk Drive right before the Buddington Road crash.  The other driver involved in that crash was taken to the hospital.

Police said the father took off from that scene, then cut into the Laurel Glen condominium development off Buddington Road before crashing into a tree and hitting a building.

The father suffered a minor injury, police said. He has been taken into custody.

The pickup crashed into a storage unit. The person in the condo above was not hurt.

More information was not immediately available. Check back for updates.

The NBC Connecticut meteorologists have issued a First Alert for heavy rain and thunderstorms starting Wednesday through early Thursday.

Tuesday will be humid with a mix of sun and clouds and a few scattered showers.

Wednesday brings scattered showers and thunderstorms, which will become more numerous later in the day. The rain and thunderstorms bring the potential for flash flooding, with the recent heavy rains having already saturated the ground. 

An isolated severe storm is also possible.

Standby for updates as the weather moves closer.

Get the latest forecast anytime by clicking here.

Main Street in Newington has reopened after a car crashed into a utility pole and caused hundreds of power outages on Tuesday morning.

The car crashed into the utility pole on Main Street shortly after midnight, police said. The crash closed Main Street between Dowd Street and Mountain View Drive through rush hour and reopened shortly before 8:00 a.m. Drivers were encouraged to seek alternate routes.

Eversource was at the scene to make repairs and clean up, police said.

There were nearly 500 outages reported in Newington, but they have since been restored, according to Eversource.

It is unclear if anyone was injured in the crash. Investigators are working to determine what may have caused the accident.

It's often cheaper for some Medicare patients to buy prescription drugs through Walmart's $4 generic program than through their own health insurance, according to a study out Monday.

The study's lead author told NBC News it's more evidence that patients can't always rely on health insurance for reasonable prices on their prescriptions.

"Twenty percent of the time, at least, we should go to Walmart," said Dr. Joseph Ross of the Yale School of Medicine.

The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was informed by discussion about pharmacy gag rules, Ross said. Those rules prevent pharmacists from telling patients about possible savings on drugs, like by not using health insurance.

We're at half a billion now. 

The Mega Millions jackpot has swelled to $512 million for Tuesday night's drawing, making it the fifth-largest prize in the game's 16-year history.  

All it takes to win the pot is $2 for a ticket and having the odds of 1 in 302.6 million in your favor. Players must select five numbers from 1 to 70 and one Mega Ball from 1 to 25. Tuesday night's drawing will take place at 11 p.m. ET. 

No one has hit the jackpot since May 4. That $142 million prize was the third winning jackpot this year.  

Mega Millions is one of two national lottery games. It's played in 44 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

The largest jackpot in U.S. history was a $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot won in January 2016 by players in three states. The record prize for Mega Millions was $656 million for the March 30, 2012, drawing, in which there were also three winning tickets. 

Those looking for more information can visit here.

Police are trying to identify the man who robbed a West Hartford gas station at gunpoint on Friday night.

The robbery happened at the Supreme Gas Station at 141 Park Road at 9:47 p.m., police said.

Anyone who recognizes the man in the surveillance photos is asked to call the West Hartford Police Department at 860-523-5203.

A man accused of stripping naked before working out at a New Hampshire Planet Fitness reportedly told arresting officers he thought the gym was a "judgment-free zone."

Plaistow police Capt. Brett Morgan said Eric Stagno, 34, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, was charged with indecent exposure/lewdness and disorderly conduct after he allegedly walked into the gym on Route 125 in Plaistow on Sunday afternoon, took off his clothes, walked back and forth a couple of times and then started doing poses on his knees on a yoga mat.

As he was being arrested, police said he referenced Planet Fitness' long-standing slogan that it is a "judgment-free zone."

Stagno is free on bail and is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 21 in Plaistow District Court. He could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Planet Fitness has not yet responded for a request for comment. 

Attorney General Jeff Sessions chuckled and repeated the phrase "lock her up" Tuesday after high school students at a conservative conference in Washington chanted the 2016 Trump campaign's anti-Hillary Clinton mantra.

Sessions, the nation's top law enforcement official, was praising attendees at Turning Point USA's High School Leadership Summit for fighting for conservative values when the chants broke out, NBC News reported.

"Lock her up," Sessions said in response with a laugh. "I heard that a long time over the last campaign."

The bullet that killed a Trader Joe's store manager in an exchange of gunfire with a homicide suspect following a pursuit crash Saturday was fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer, police said Tuesday morning.

LAPD Chief Michel Moore made what he called a "heart-breaking" announcement during a news conference about the investigation into the deadly standoff at the busy Trader Joe's store in Silver Lake. Moore said the round was fired by one of two officers as the gunman ran into the store and opened fire on police.

After the pursuit driver crashed into a pole, people inside store approached the front windows, Moore said. That's when 27-year-old Melyda Corado was accidentally struck by LAPD gunfire as she tried to leave the building, Moore said.

She then went back inside the store and collapsed, police said.

"Those officers' actions to stop him, the split-second decisions they had to make, I recognize how they will forever go through their lives debating whether that was what they had to do," Moore said Tuesday. "I believe it's what they needed to do in order to defend ... the people in that store and to defend themselves.

"It is unimaginable, the pain of the Corado family. We share that pain."

The officers fired a total of eight rounds, Moore added. Moore said he spoke to the two officers who opened fire outside the store. 

"I know that it is every officer's worst nightmare, to harm an innocent bystander during a violent engagement," Moore said. "I spoke to both of these officers this morning. They are devastated. They were devastated in the immediate aftermath of this event -- that a person died in their efforts to stop Atkins. This is a heartbreaking reminder of the split-second decisions that officers must make every day. And it is also a sobering reminder of the destruction a lone individual with a handgun can create."

The store remained closed Tuesday, but mourners continued to leave flowers and other items at a memorial outside the building in memory of Corado. Mayor Eric Garcetti said he met with the victim's family.

"Saturday was a dark day for the family of Melyda Corado, and it is our responsibility to shed light as quickly as possible on what happened," the mayor said in a statement Tuesday. "Melyda's loved ones are entitled to answers — and Angelenos deserve complete transparency in understanding the full circumstances of her death."

The news conference comes as criminal charges are expected against the suspect, identified as 28-year-old Gene Evin Atkins. He has been arrested on suspicion of murder and is being held in lieu of $2 million bail. 

He did not fire the fatal round, but Atkins could still face homicide-related charges under California statutes, such as the provocative acts doctrine.

Atkins allegedly shot his grandmother and wounded another woman before he crashed his car and ran into the supermarket northeast of downtown Los Angeles, where he held dozens of people hostage in a tense standoff with scores of heavily armed officers outside. Video released at the Tuesday news conference showed video of the pursuit and exchange of gunfire from LAPD body-worn cameras.

One of the body-worn cameras shows an officer running for cover behind a concrete block wall.

Atkins fired at officers from outside and inside the store, Moore said.

No hostages were seriously hurt before the man handcuffed himself and surrendered about three hours after the crash.

Atkins' grandmother was in critical condition on Sunday, police said. She was shot seven times at a South Los Angeles home and another woman, who was allegedly forced into a car before the pursuit, suffered a graze wound from a bullet before the crash.

Two of Atkins' cousins said he had argued with his grandmother over his girlfriend being in the house.

Officers tracked the car using the Lo-Jack stolen-vehicle tracking system and tried to stop the man in Hollywood, but he refused to pull over, police said. He then allegedly fired at officers through the car's rear window.

Officers did not return fire during the chase, Moore said. In one of the videos released by the LAPD, an officer can be heard telling a colleague during the pursuit, "Don't shoot."

Customers in the store and others in the parking lot sought cover as bullets shattered the store's glass doors. Some people in the store climbed out widows. Other barricaded themselves in rooms. 

Fire officials said six people, ranging in age from 12 to 81, were taken to the hospital. None had been shot, and all were in fair condition.

Ivanka Trump's fashion line is closing down, the company said Tuesday.

Trump had left the brand last year to work for her father at the White House and a representative for the fashion line said that it wasn't able to grow in the way it had when she worked there.

With Trump committed to Washington for the foreseeable future, she decided to close the brand. 

"After 17 months in Washington, I do not know when or if I will ever return to the business, but I do know that my focus for the foreseeable future will be the work I am doing here in Washington, so making this decision now is the only fair outcome for my team and partners," Trump said in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal and New York Post first reported the story.

Two people, including a child, were ejected during a crash on Interstate 91 South in Rocky Hill Tuesday morning and state police said there has been a fatality.

The three-vehicle crash, which was reported at 9:44 a.m., closed the high between exits 24 and 23 for hours. The right lane remains closed, but the left and center lanes have reopened.

Video from the scene shows a Jeep on its side on the highway and what appeared to be a car seat off in the distance. It’s not clear how old the injured child is, but the child is being treated at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, according to state police.

No additional information was immediately available.

Check back for updates.

South Windsor Police have arrested a teacher and three supervisors of a daycare facility after an investigation into a child abuse complaint that authorities said was not reported to the state.

According to police, officers began an investigation in April after they received a complaint that a teacher at a local daycare was being abusive to children in her care. The complaint stated that the teacher handled children in a rough and aggressive way on three occasions.

Police did not release the name of the daycare that the teacher and supervisors worked for, but Mother Goose Children’s Center voluntarily surrendered its license earlier this month following allegations of abuse that came to light in a recent state inspection. 

The complaint South Windsor police investigated also said that the daycare management was made aware of the teacher's behavior and did not report it to the state, even though they are required to by mandated reporter laws, police said.

South Windsor police said investigators from the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood and the Department of Children and Families worked with them to investigate the incident and a teacher and three supervisors were arrested.

On Monday, police arrested 25-year-old Ashley Swietek, of South Windsor, 74-year-old Marjorie Glater, of South Windsor, 36-year-old Nicole Moriarty, of South Windsor and 44-year-old Brandy Novack, of Coventry.

Swietek is charged with three counts of risk of injury to a minor, while Glater, Moriarty and Novack are charged with failure of a mandated reported to report abuse.

All four were released on bond and are scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 2.

According to the Office of Early Childhood, Glater, the daycare operator, voluntarily gave up her three licenses following the agency’s investigation. The OEC alleged that “on and prior to April 23, 2018, staff member engaged in abusive, neglectful and frightening treatment of children.”

Glater’s attorney said his client denies the alleged abuse and plans to enter a not-guilty plea

”She chose to make this kind of arrangement after 45 years in the business rather than go through the time, the expense and emotional ordeal of fighting these charges, but at no time has any representative of Mother Goose ever admitted to the truth of these allegations,” the attorney previously said.

State officials told NBC Connecticut earlier this month that the employee who was accused of the abuse was no longer employed at the center. They said Glater would work to implement a new director by Sept. 28.

Mother Goose Children’s Center is still open. The Office of Early Childhood Education has been visiting the facility daily.

Police said they have found the two men they were searching for in connection with a shooting incident in Manchester on Saturday and arrested them. They have also arrested a woman who is accused of hindering prosecution.

Police were looking for 25-year-old Anthony Gunn, of Manchester, and 27-year-old Kevin McCray, of New Britain, in connection with the investigation into a shooting on July 21 and found them hiding inside 15 Wadsworth St, police said. No one was injured during the shooting.

During the incident, police officers evacuated nearby homes as a precaution. Police believe the victim was targeted so they say there is no direct threat to the general public. Minor property damage was reported on a nearby home.

Gunn was charged with criminal attempt to commit assault in the first degree, conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree, conspiracy to commit reckless endangerment in the first degree, unlawful discharge of a firearm, criminal possession of a firearm and weapon in a motor vehicle. Bond was set at $500,000

Police said there was an existing arrest warrant for Gunn, charging him with 13 counts of larceny in the sixth degree, 13 counts of illegal use of payment card and 13 counts of receiving goods or services obtained by illegal use of payment card. The bond for these charges is $500 cash or surety

McCray was charged with conspiracy to commit assault in the first degree, conspiracy to commit reckless endangerment in the first degree and weapon in a motor vehicle. He was held on a $500,000 court-set bond.

Lashay Belton, 35, of Manchester, was arrested as part of the investigation and charged with two counts of hindering prosecution and interfering with an officer,

She was held on a $25,000 bond.

For the first time this cycle, a leading elections forecaster has given Democrats a greater than 50 percent chance to reclaim the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms, CNBC.com reported.

An analysis by Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a service of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, published on Tuesday shows the House tilting past 50-50 odds in favor of the Democrats taking it back.

The party needs to flip 23 seats this fall in order to regain the majority they haven't held since the first half of President Barack Obama's first term.

A retired Central Connecticut State University theater professor is accused of telling students to lie to police after a student was injured while working under his direction in the theatre.

Thomas Callery turned himself into the CCSU Police Department on July 12 after being informed that a warrant for his arrest had been issued.

Callery is accused of directing students to work in unsafe conditions to adjust lighting and other elements in the theatre, and then telling students to lie to investigators when a student was injured in a fall.

According to court documents, on March 28, 2018, an officer was called to the Black Box Theatre on the CCSU campus for a report of an injured person. When police arrived the victim was lying on her back, bleeding from a cut on her head and “visibly upset,” according to court documents. The victim initially told EMS and police that she fell from a ladder, but another student told police that the victim fell from an overhead beam and that their professor, Callery, told them to lie about it.

The victim then admitted that she had walked onto a building support beam to help another student remove lights, and tripped over an obstacle and fell. The students told police that Callery told them to use the beams and that they did not have any safety equipment, according to court documents.

Investigators determined the victim fell off the support beam onto a catwalk about 8 feet below, then fell on the stage another 4 feet below, then finally onto the floor another 3 feet below – a total of around 15 feet. The victim suffered three fractures to her back and had to wear a back brace for six to eight weeks. She also needed five stitches and suffered a bruised lung.

The court documents state that when police asked Callery about the incident, he initially claimed he did not know where the student fell from or why she was walking on a beam, but later admitted he knew she had fallen from the beam and that he told students to lie to police because he was afraid the theatre would be shut down.

Callery had received OSHA safety training, according to the documents, yet still directed the victim and other students onto support beams high above the stage without any safety equipment.

Callery was charged with interfering with a police officer and reckless endangerment in the second degree.

He was placed on administrative leave soon after the incident while the investigation was conducted and he retired before the investigation was completed, according to school officials. He is next due in court on July 26.

Three motorcycles were stolen from homes in Groton overnight and police are trying to track down the suspects.

Police said the first report came in around 6:35 a.m. from a home on the Country Glenn Apartment complex located on Meridian St Extension. Shortly afterwards they received two more reports – a second from the same complex and a third from the Ledges Apartments on Ledgewood Road.

Investigators believe all three motorcycles were taken sometime during the late night to early morning hours. They were all locked and parked in “well-lit outdoor spaces,” according to police.

The vehicles are described as sports bikes – one Kawasaki and two Suzukis.

Anyone with information on these cases should contact Groton police at 860-441-6712.

Police remind residents to stay vigilant and report anything suspicious. Motorcycle owners are encouraged to take steps like using rugged locks and video cameras to deter thieves, and store motorcycles in garages if possible.

Hamden police are investigating the crash that killed three people early Sunday morning.

A preliminary investigation has revealed that the vehicle was coming off the Route 40 connector at a high rate of speed around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday when it went across four lanes of Whitney Avenue and then hit the tree.

Police said the driver and the front seat passenger seat had to be extricated from the vehicle and all three people who were inside the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene.

They have been identified as 21-year-old Monroe resident Maksims Frolovs, 26-year-old Bridgeport resident  Edmonds Mihalenkos, and 29-year-old Bridgeport resident Hiadlas DeOliveira.

Officers said it was difficult to identify them because of the severity of the crash. Their bodies have been transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner so autopsies could be performed and the autopsies revealed all three victims died from blunt injuries.

"Based on the crush damage to the vehicle and based on the injuries to the occupants we believe speed was excessive," said Hamden Police Chief Thomas Wydra.

Anyone with any information about the crash is asked to contact Officer Kevin Hall at (203) 230-4036.