A car stuck a pedestrian in a hit-and-run crash in Danbury late Wednesday morning and police are looking for the driver and car.

Police responded to the area of 181 White Street in Danbury on Wednesday at about 11:05 a.m., locating the injured pedestrian. Christopher Peroco, 23, of New Milford, pressed the crosswalk button before he stepped into the road, but a car headed eastbound hit him and the driver kept going, police said.

The car that hit Peroco was a silver sedan, possibly  with the license plate DDL9603, police said. The driver's identity is unknown.

Police checked their computer database for the car and no matches came up.

An ambulance took Peroco to Danbury Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Police ask anyone with information to call Officer Bardelli at the Danbury Police Department at 203-797-4611, ext. 572.

A Facebook post about a stressed out mother with a crying baby on an airplane who found calm in the kindness of a stranger sitting next to her has gone viral.

Rebekka Garvison was boarding a plane from Chicago to Atlanta with her baby daughter Rylee on Sept. 24 when Rylee started crying inconsolably. The flight was full, and the other passengers were quiet but annoyed, according to Garvison. This included the couple who were sitting next to her.

"I could tell by their body language sitting right next to me that they weren't thrilled about sitting next to Rylee," Garvison wrote in a Facebook post later. 

Garvison then switched to a seat that had an empty seat next to it. Further down the row was a woman named Nyfesha Miller, who heard the crying baby and asked if she could try to calm her. Garvison passed Rylee to Miller, hopeful for a solution to stop the crying.

"As soon as she (Miller) had her, Rylee was looking out the window and stopped crying," Garvison wrote. "When we got in the air she fell right asleep and slept in her lap the whole flight until we got to our gate. She kept saying it wasn't a problem at all and it was actually a comforting feeling for her."

Miller even carried Rylee off the plane to allow Garvison to gather up all her other luggage.

The act of kindness has since gone viral via Garvison's Facebook post. Since she posted it last week, the post has been shared nearly 100,000 times.

"Nyfesha Miller, you will never understand how happy this act of kindness has made my family," Garvison wrote. "You could've just rolled your eyes and been irritated like everyone else, but you took her and held her the entire flight and let me get some rest and peace of mind. It brought tears to my eyes while I sat there and watched you and Rylee sleeping next to me." 

A Danbury police officer has been placed on paid administrative leave after he was arrested on grand larceny charges in a series of vehicle break-ins, police said.

The Duchess County Sheriff's Department notified Danbury police that one of the department's officers, Anthony Ramos, 28, of Pawling, New York, had been arrested.

Ramos and another man, William Tyson, 26, of Pawling, were charged with fourth-degree larceny, a felony.

Danbury police relieved Ramos of duty and put him on administrative leave immediately after finding out about his arrest because of the "seriousness of the charges" to "protect the integrity of the Danbury Police Department," police said.

Deputies from the Dutchess County Sheriff's Office responded to Arthursburg Road in LaGrange, New York at about 1:40 a.m. on Friday to investigate a reported car break-in. Ramos and Tyson were found near the reported incident and the investigation linked them to the larceny and others in the area, police said.

Police took both men into custody on accusations of going into unlocked cars and stealing property from them at multiple homes.

Both men were charged with fourth-degree grand larceny, a Class E felony.

They were released on promises to appear in court.

Police recovered GPS units and pocketbooks stolen from the cars.

The case remains under investigation as police work to see if they are connected to other larcenies.

Danbury Police Department's internal affairs unit is also conducting an internal investigation.

"We got his badge. We got his gun and he will not perform any law enforcement functions until this is investigated and adjudicated," said Danbury Police Chief Alan Baker.

Ramos has been with the department since 2012.

The sheriff's office in Dutchess County asks anyone with information or who thinks they may have been a victim of a larceny incident between Sept. 24 and 25 to call 845-486-3820 to report it to Det. Pfitscher. Members of the public can also call the police tipline at 845-605-CLUE (2583) or ermail dcsotips@gmail.com.

Bridgeport police are looking for the person who shot and critically injured a 15-year-old boy late Monday afternoon.

Bridgeport police responded to the intersection of Trumbull Avenue and Terrace Circle after receiving reports of gunfire.

Officers discovered a 15-year-old boy at the scene who had been shot in the back of the neck. He was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital, transported in a private car.

The teenager is in critical but stable condition. His identity hasn't been released at this time.

Police haven't identified a suspect, but are searching for the shooter.

The case remains under investigation.

Police ask anyone with information to call Bridgeport police at 203-581-5201.

A newly recruited police officer helped nab a suspect accused of stealing a purse from a 26-year-old woman walking on Virgil Street in Stamford late morning on Tuesday.

Keeon Westin, 24, grabbed the woman from behind, yanking her purse from her shoulder and snapping the strap, police said. He ran from the scene with her purse toward some houses on the street.

Someone found the purse shortly after, however the cash that was inside had been stolen, police said. There is no word on whether the cash has since been found.

Police reviewed video surveillance.

On Wednesday, a field training officer and a new recruit were driving on Hoyt Street when  Rookie Officer Daniel DeRocco saw a man matching the description of the suspect in the video. They detained him in front of the Stramford courthouse and took him into custody, police said.

Westin, whose last address is a homeless shelter, confessed to the crime. Police charged him with third-degree robbery. His bond was set at $10,000.

New Britain police responded to a possible home invasion Wednesday morning.

Police received reports of a possible home invasion near the corner of Maple and Whiting streets at about 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

No one was injured.

The investigation is ongoing.

No further information was immediately available.

One person in New York has died from Legionnaires' disease amid a new cluster that emerged in a Bronx neighborhood this month, health officials said Wednesday as they announced the total number of cases connected to the current outbreak increased to 13.

The death was announced two days after health officials said they were investigating the new cluster in Morris Park, which the officials said is not related to the outbreak that sickened more than 120 people, killing 12 of them, in the borough over the summer.

Initially, the city said it was investigating a cluster of seven patients. Two days later, the patient total had nearly doubled. Officials say patients in the current cluster live or work in Morris Park and range in age from 45 to 75; 11 individuals remain hospitalized and all have underlying health conditions.

Thirty-five cooling towers in the area were tested for Legionella bacteria, and 15 of them came back positive. They are located at the Chase bank at 2725 East Tremont; Calvary Hospital at 1740 Eastchester Rd.; Lehman High School at 2964 East Tremont; Bronx State Psychiatric at 1500 Waters Pl.; Einstein College at 1199 Sacket Ave., 1845 Eastchester Rd., 1865 Eastchester Road, 1925-35 Eastchester Road and 1301 Morris Park Ave.

All locations were ordered to begin cleaning and disinfecting immediately, officials said.

Speaking in the Bronx Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio stressed the current outbreak is different from the one that erupted in the south Bronx over the summer, becoming the largest outbreak in New York City history. 

This is "different than what we experienced a couple of weeks back. This is a much more limited situation," the mayor said. "We're going to be very vigilant, be very careful." 

"The danger is not getting medical attention. That is the singular danger,” de Blasio added.

A spokesperson for Eintstein College of Medicine said Montefiore and Einstein have been compliant with all required health department cooling tower testing standards. 

"Despite these efforts, the most recent water test conducted by the DOH showed detection of Legionella," the spokesperson said. "In coordination with the DOH, we are treating the towers to eliminate harmful bacteria in these water sources, sanitizing the area regardless of the results, and will continue to take every precaution to protect students and staff."

Lehman High School has turned off the air conditioning as it disinfects the towers to remove the "trace amounts" of Legionella, according to a Department of Education spokesman. The water in the cooling tower is self-contained and separate from the water used by the school. Classes remain in session.

A town hall will be held in the neighborhood Thursday to address residents' concerns.

Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said Monday the city was working to determine the source of the outbreak and taking immediate steps to protect the people who live and work in the area. Bassett urged anyone with flu-like symptoms, including fever, cough and headache, to seek care immediately.

She said all patients developed the disease prior to Sept. 21, when the first case in the cluster was reported.

The deadly outbreak over the summer, which was the largest outbreak in New York City history, was linked to a cooling tower at the Opera House Hotel. In that outbreak, which affected the south Bronx, at least 128 people got sick; a dozen of them died. Those who died had underlying health conditions.

Concerns about prevention and safety prompted the city to develop and pass new legislation to regulate cooling towers, one of the locations where Legionella, the bacteria that causes the potentially severe pneumonia-like disease in people who are exposed to it, is likely to grow.

Under the new legislation, cooling towers across the city must be tested regularly for Legionella bacteria; any found to be contaminated must be disinfected immediately. The regulations specify penalties for violations, and the legislation makes New York City the first major city in the United States to regulate cooling towers.

Prior to the recent outbreak, no city records were kept as to which buildings had cooling towers.

The cooling towers in Morris Park had recently been cleaned in line with the new regulations, city officials said.

Legionnaires' disease usually sets in two to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria and has symptoms similar to pneumonia, including shortness of breath, high fever, chills and chest pains. People with Legionnaires' also experience appetite loss, confusion, fatigue and muscle aches.

It cannot be spread person-to-person and those at highest risk for contracting the illness include the elderly, cigarette smokers, people with chronic lung or immune system disease and those receiving immunosuppressive drugs. Most cases can be treated successfully with antibiotics.

A U.S. House committee alleged Wednesday that a former high-ranking federal police official had sex in government cars while on official duty -- one of a series of incidents of misconduct the committee said it identified at the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland.

The letter from the U.S. House Science Committee also detailed missing police equipment, security lapses and alleged time-and-attendance fraud. The letter was obtained by the News4 I-Team.

Four children in New York were among five people hurt when a livery cab jumped a curb and crashed into a group of pedestrians in the Bronx near a school bus stop Wednesday morning, witnesses and fire officials said.

Fire officials said two of the five victims were critically injured. The worst hurt included an 8-year-old girl, who broke her legs and pelvis in the 8:30 a.m. accident at Valentine Avenue and East 194th Street, according to authorities and people familiar with the family.

Witnesses said the injured 8-year-old was trapped under the vehicle; good Samaritans tried to lift the car off her but couldn't and someone got a jack to lift the cab off the child. Firefighters arrived and got the girl out. Her 5-year-old brother was also hurt.

"I still have that image in my mind, seeing the children underneath the car," the grandfather of another child at the scene said. Breaking into tears, he said he thought his own grandson had been badly injured or killed at one point because he couldn't find him.

The injured siblings' 33-year-old mother, Gianerys Heredia, was also injured; she remains in the hospital with her children. A babysitter said another of Heredia's children, a 10-year-old girl, was with her family at the time of the accident but the mother pushed her out of the way.

"It was a bad experience, watching them cry for their mom and dad," she said. "It's something that's always going to touch my heart."

The sitter said the badly injured 8-year-old girl was undergoing surgery Wednesday.

An 11-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl suffered less serious injuries, officials said.

Images from the scene show a heavily damaged car up on the sidewalk, braced against a deli that has its steel grate down. Caution tape cordons off the scene and the front of the vehicle appears completely destroyed, with pieces of the smashed hood scattered on the ground.

Neighbors say the school bus stop near the accident scene should have been moved years ago because it's a high-traffic area with speeders.

The livery cab driver was questioned by authorities but not charged.

In an exclusive interview with NBC 4 New York, the driver, Bialo Daillo, said he was heartbroken by the accident. The driver said he stepped on the break and the car wouldn't stop. He said he feels fine physically, but is sad for those who were injured.

"I just care about the other people; I'm not bleeding. I'm sorry for the other people," Daillo said. "Nobody wants that. Nobody wants this. I don't know what happened."

The driver says he has been driving a cab for 18 years.

George Perez, who witnessed the accident, said everyone started screaming when Daillo's cab barreled into the crowd.

"People were flying everywhere," he said. "I witnessed shootings, all kinds of crimes here, but nothing like that. It was really horrific to see young people, kids in school ... laying like that everywhere."

Several companies are recalling bicycles with quick-release front wheels.

Quick-release levers on some front wheels can come into contact with the disc brake rotor, potentially causing the front wheel to come to a sudden stop or separate from the bike, according to the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association.

This may cause injury to riders, says the BPSA.

The following brands are participating in the recall:

• Access
• Breezer
• Cannondale
• Civia
• Diamondback
• Felt
• Fuji
• Giant
• GT
• Haro
• Jamis
• Novara
• Norco
• Raleigh
• Ridley
• SE
• Specialized

For more information on the recall, click here.

Hurricane Joaquin has strengthened east of the Bahamas, upgraded to a category 3 hurricane, and it is likely to make landfall in the Mid-Atlantic, somewhere between the Carolinas and New Jersey early next week.

While the storm is forecast to make landfall in the United States, it's important to communicate all possibilities. One solution, albeit less likely, is that the storm heads out to sea to the east. The European model has consistently shown the out-to-sea solution. It remains a possibility.

Over the past few days, the track changed considerably. Now, most modelling has come to a consensus that the storm will in fact take a turn north and then west. As of Wednesday evening, most of the models on the "spaghetti" plot take the storm ashore in North Carolina.

The National Hurricane Center expects the storm to continue drifting southwest towards the Bahamas until in turns north on Friday. Once the storm turns north, it will rapidly accelerate. The official track takes the storm into the Chesapeake Bay, which is north of most of the models.

While a direct hit is unlikely in Connecticut, there's a large amount of moisture with Joaquin. This means more rain is likely this weekend into early next week.

Connecticut saw a couple inches of rain on Wednesday, without much issue. Still, if a large amount of rain falls this weekend it could cause flooding issues, especially of the urban and small stream type.

The two less likely scenarios are that Joaquin heads east out to sea or tracks into New England. Still days out, it's appropriate to keep these options on the table despite the fact that the forecast calls for a Mid-Atlantic landfall.

Meteorologists Tyler Jankoski and Ryan Hanrahan answered questions on Facebook this afternoon. Visit the NBC Connecticut Facebook page to read the answers.

The First Alert weather team will have the latest information online and on-air all week long.

A mother accused of leaving her 4-year-old daughter alone all day on Tuesday told police she left her child so she could be paid for sex because she is facing eviction, according to court documents.

Shi'day Nicks, 22, told police she left her 4-year-old daughter, Shafyalya Nick, alone for several hours on Tuesday while she met a man who promised to pay her $230 for sexual favors, according to court documents. 

In a statement to police, Nicks said she didn't intend to leave her child alone for such a long time.

"I am facing eviction and felt I needed to do what I had to do in order to keep a roof over our heads," she said. "I did not want (redacted) to see what I felt I had to do to make money. I have no friends and no family for support since I’ve been here in Hartford. I take full responsibility for the decisions I made that lead me to be in this situation. I felt I had little choice." 

Police started investigating and looking for Nicks after someone called authorities at 10:08 a.m. on Tuesday to report that a little girl was wandering alone on Collins Street.

For nine hours, police searched for the woman until one of Nick's friends contacted authorities with a phone number for Nicks.

Police made contact with the mother around 8 p.m. and she told authorities she had gone to the store at 8 a.m. on Tuesday to buy bread and meat and her child was sleeping when she returned home 10 minutes later, so she made food for the girl and left to meet the man.

Nicks said she was supposed to be home by 2 p.m., but the man asked for more time in exchange for money, so she stayed and he brought her home around 7 p.m.

When Nicks returned home, people in the area said they saw her daughter walking down the street, then get into a police car.

"She was able to make contact with the police department. We picked her up on Wethersfield Avenue yesterday evening. She was taken to the police department and was interviewed by our special investigative detectives,” Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said. “Certainly the habits were outside the bounds of good parenting, again, lifestyle played a factor.”

At 12:15 a.m. on Wednesday, police arrested Nicks and charged her with risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and leaving a child under the age of 12 unsupervised.

Shi'day Nicks’ father, Anthony Nicks, said his granddaughter is going fine.

“Right now, as a grandfather and a father, it’s very disturbing because I don’t know what happened with my granddaughter,” Anthony Nicks said.

Shi'day Nicks was originally held on a $150,000 bond, but bond was reduced to $50,000 and she is due back in court on Oct. 21.

South Street is closed in Willimantic due to a crash involving a scooter and a car that left a young man in serious condition.

A car and scooter collided at about 7 p.m.

The driver of the scooter, a man in his 20s, was airlifed by Life Star to Hartford Hospital due to serious injuries.

The road is closed near Bain Street and will be for several hours.

Police arrested a man suspected of trying to rob a Thompson store at knifepoint.

Lukasz Zurawski, 26, of Webster, Massachusetts, is facing charges in the attempted armed robbery.

A man in a black mask came into Bud's Country Store at 759 Quinabaug Road wielding a knife and demanded money from the store clerk. He ran when chased out of the store and he darted into a black sedan parked a few yards away on Route 131 and sped off, police said.

He didn't make off with any money. Police said he headed north into Dudley, Massachusetts, where police found him in a Dunkin' Donuts on Route 197 on Tuesday at about 10 a.m. They arrested him on active warrants from Massachusetts.

Then he was taken back  to Connecticut, where state police arrested him and held him in custody. State police did not release his charges.

More than 2,000 Hartford Healthcare retirees will see major changes to the Medicare supplement plans that they received starting at retirement.

The company has held meeting regarding a phase-in of a new system of options, called OneExchange, which will replace the old plans.

Hartford Healthcare expects to save about $20 million with the switch.

“We’re honoring our commitment and we’re continuing to provide access to a Medicare supplement" said Theresa Buss, a Vice President of Human Resources at Hartford Healthcare. "We’re actually giving them a better option and better choices than they’ve had in the past."

Ed Novotasky worked for Hartford Healthcare in the HR department for 16 years. When he retired he was guaranteed a employer contribution of 55% toward his Medicare supplement. Now he feels as though the company is backing out of a contract.

“Oh definitely. When you sit down and you tell the employees that this is what your medical insurance will cost based on your years of service and then all of sudden they pull the rug out from underneath you, I definitely feel that there’s a level of mistrust there.”

Novotasky said he attended one of the meetings where the new OneExchange system was discussed. He says he still hasn't seen any plan options or possible prices which is frustrating to him.

Buss with Hartford Healthcare says about 90% of retirees who will choose plans on OneExchange will qualify and likely purchase plans that will be the same price or cheaper than the current plan.

“We in the HR world, we focus on the employee benefits, so the retiree medical, it’s not what we do for a living, so to have somebody at OneExchange who knows this in and out I feel very confident that our retirees will be able to make the decisions that are right for them in their individual circumstances.”

Novotasky doesn't buy that sales pitch.

“It’s illogical to say it’s going to benefit me when they’re taking a 55% contribution away. It simply doesn’t make sense”

Retirees will be able to enroll for new plans with OneExchange starting in mid-October and that will run until the end of the year.

Groups advocating on behalf of Connecticut's developmentally disabled adults and children took to the Capitol to criticize Gov. Dannel Malloy's rescissions from more than ten days ago. One Democrat in the Connecticut House even took the governor's administration to task and backed GOP calls for a Special Session to address funding deficiencies.

More than $7 million of the cuts were aimed at the Department of Developmental Services that handles adult home and day services for adults living with mental struggles.

"We had a plan" said Dr. Michelle Rivelli, a Shelton pediatrician who's speaking of her daughter Jesse, a 20 year old with developmental disabilities and autism.

Rivelli said her daughter is on waiting lists for both a day program and a home where she could live with her peers. She says Jesse is being denied human rights.

“Now with these new recsissions we’re unsure if an when our daughter will be able to attend a day program or receive any funding at all.”

The overall reductions over the past year to DDS amount to about .0069% of more than $1 billion of funding but to families who see the cuts, any downward revision is unwanted.

“It’s mind boggling how his administration could not even consider how this could affect these individuals and their families" Rivelli said.

Rep. Cathy Abercrombie from Berlin said she wasn't elected to sit idly by and not say anything cuts that hurt people in her district. She backs the idea of a Special Session that's been posed by Republicans, and rebuffed by her own Democratic House leadership.
She even said she knows where money could be found to help people with disabilities.

“Are you going to put transportation before families? I’m not and I don’t feel comfortable" she said.

Devon Puglia, Gov. Malloy's Director of Communications responded to today's news conference with a statement saying, "Our hearts of course go out to the affected families. However, while we understand there is continued demand for service, it's important to note that we spend about
$1,100,000,000 per year. We have to make difficult decisions and do the fiscally responsible thing while planning for our long-term economic future."Dr. Rivelli says she voted for Gov. Malloy and supported him. She even cited his struggles with his own personal disabilities growing up.

Her opinion has changed with the budget situation.

“I’ve lost a lot of respect for him I would say is where I am right now because I really can’t understand what the thought process is.”

John Izzo’s pictures from past storms show the potential for flooding along the shoreline.

“Here look at this,” Izzo said, pointing at an old photo, “the dumpster was floating.”

While the exact path of Hurricane Joaquin is unknown, flooding is a main concern in communities that felt the brunt of Sandy and Irene.

Some boat owners aren’t taking any chances. As the owner of Marine General, Izzo was busy Wednesday pulling their boats out of the water.

“Why stay in for two more weeks and risk it,” Izzo said. “It is like we’re done, take me out. Put it away. And again, it is the prudent thing to do.”

The morning rain on Wednesday left standing water along a stretch of Beach Street. Federal funds were allocated following Sandy and Irene to raise the portion of the road by five feet, West Haven Deputy Fire Chief Scott Schwartz told NBC Connecticut. This shoreline improvement is still in the design phase.

“We’re a little bit lower with the waters that came in from the last storms,” Dep. Chief Schwartz said. “Last storms, we’ve lost a lot of the beaches.”

Schwartz said first responders now better understand how the tides push inland after Sandy and Irene.

“It was a lot of the high tides were pushed in and they were held in for long periods of time,” he said, “where we did get a lot of water rise in areas that we hadn’t had water rising before.”

Wayne Capone owns Stowe’s Seafood just steps away from the beach in West Haven.

"On a sunny day we’re busy,” Capone said, “on a rainy day, not so much."

Capone would rather know sooner than later what Joaquin’s impact will be on the Connecticut Coast.

“I have to order fresh fish,” he said, “so I go day-to-day and keep watching."

Capone remembers in 1985 during Hurricane Gloria when the tidal surge reached the top of his roof. He said a sand dune has helped during the past two storms, but the water was still able to rush through an opening during Irene and Sandy.

“It would be different if the dunes ran the whole length of West Haven,” Capone said.

During Sandy, Capone said Stowe’s lost power for seven days.

“I plan on losing power,” he said, “just because it usually happens.”

As West Haven’s Emergency Management Director, Dep. Chief Schwartz is closely tracking Joaquin’s movement.

“We’re just trying to keep our people that are along the coast safe,” Schwartz said. “When we do reverse 911s and we’re giving you good information, if we’re asking you to get off the shoreline and move to an inland location, we ask that you do that.”

Capone just hopes Joaquin spares the West Haven portion of the Atlantic Coast.

"You know, you prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Capone said, “it is a corny statement, but it is really true."

From decades of living along the shoreline, Izzo knows once a storm rolls in, do not take any chances.

“When it starts,” Izzo said, “it is too late, and all you’re basically doing is endangering your property, but more important thing is also life or injury.”

Hamden Police are going to start filing reports when they handle complaints about parties, but many Quinnipiac University students who live off campus want to keep things from reaching that level.

"Some neighbors aren't as understanding as others," Paige Ferreri, a senior, said. "We give them our phone numbers and let them know if there are any problems to contact us."

She said living off campus is convenient and cheaper than living on campus at Quinnipiac.

Her friend, Erik Benotti, said he appreciates the elbow room he gets living on New Road.

"It's kind of that freedom thing with college. You feel a little more comfortable when you have some space and you're not crowded in with everybody else at the university," he said.

They said they want to head off any complaints to police about noise, though students occupy most of the houses on Benotti's stretch of New Road.

However, student housing has made inroads on Cannon Street, a couple of minutes away, but signs show there are more rooms for rent.

Delinda Conte was pleased to get a letter of apology from her young neighbors after a party that was too noisy.

"I'm hoping that more students would be that responsible and respectful because this is a quiet neighborhood, we've been living here for a long time, and I know that Quinnipiac is expanding," she said.

The health care program for 9/11 first responders expired at midnight Wednesday, but supporters expect to make it permanent long before it runs out of money sometime next year.

Congress recessed without reauthorizing the James Zadroga Health and Compensation Act, which covers medical care for those who became sick after working at the World Trade Center following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart has made the program a public cause, personally lobbying lawmakers to act before its Oct. 1 "sunset" date.

The act is fully funded well into 2016, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters earlier this month that "we do plan to extend the program."

The Secret Service apologized to Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Wednesday for violating federal privacy law, NBC News reported.

The agency improperly accessed sensitive personal information about him dozens of times in little more than a single week. The handling of his information was confirmed Wednesday in a 29-page report by the inspector general's office of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Secret Service.

"It's a bit scary. If they would do this to me, I just, I shuddered to think what they might be doing to other people," he told NBC News. "I'd like to tell you how tough I am, but it's scary, and it's intimidating, and I will continue to investigate the Secret Service and others, but this should have never ever happened."

Chaffetz, R-Utah — who applied to the Secret Service in 2003 — has aggressively pursued allegations of Secret Service misconduct as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.