Medical equipment tainted with a deadly "superbug" may have contributed to the deaths of two patients at Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center, and dozens of other patients may have been infected with the drug-resistant bacteria as well, officials said Wednesday.

UCLA Health System officials said 179 patients had been notified about the exposure, which took place between October 2014 and January 2015.

The patients were treated for digestive ailments ranging from gallstones to cancers. Doctors used a minimally invasive technique that requires a scope being placed down a patient’s throat.

An internal investigation at the Westwood hospital revealed that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria known as Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) may have been transmitted during a procedure, officials said.

A total of seven patients were confirmed to be infected.

UCLA officials said the scopes had been sterilized according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

"The two scopes involved with the infection were immediately removed and UCLA is now utilizing a decontamination process that goes above and beyond the manufacturer and national standards," officials said in a statement.

Free home testing kits were offered to the patients who may have been infected.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

The residents of a San Gabriel Valley home escaped injury when a car slammed into it early Thursday morning, apparently slicing open a gas line, authorities said.

The driver of the car was drunk and arrested at the house, in the 17900 block of Sunrise Drive, in Rowland Heights, a California Highway patrolman alleged.

The vehicle struck the garage and possibly hit a gas line, bringing out gas and utility workers, CHP said. No one was injured.

A man was stabbed during a bar brawl in Echo Park early Thursday.

The melee occurred at The Gold Room on Sunset Boulevard at around 1 a.m, Los Angeles Police Department said.

After getting into the fight with two other men, the victim was knifed inside the premises. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment and was in a stable condition.

A weapon was found at the scene, and officers later arrested two suspects.

An armed man was arrested after police scoured a South Los Angeles neighborhood after a break-in at a medical marijuana dispensary Thursday morning, officers said.

Two people were still at large in connection with the robbery, in the 3000 block of Vernon Avenue, according to a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

It was unclear if anything was stolen at the dispensary, police said. While residents weren't being advised to stay in their homes, police did set up a search area.

Police didn't give a description of the two remaining suspects.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

A candidate for the Los Angeles City Council was served with a lawsuit during a debate Wednesday night.

Sheila Irani of Hollywood Hills is being sued by her neighbor for her alleged role in cutting down and pruning of trees on his land in order to improve the view from her multimillion-dollar home.

Irani, who is one of 14 candidates in a hotly contested race to replace termed-out Councilman Tom LaBonge as the representative for District 4, was served during the meeting being hosted by the Laurel Canyon Association at Wonderland School.

Her neighbor Eugene Matthews is seeking unspecified damages in the lawsuit filed Tuesday against in Los Angeles Superior Court, according to the City News Service. He is alleging negligence, trespass and unjust enrichment.

Matthews, who has has owned his Canyon Lake Drive home  since 2001, claims in the lawsuit that last summer either Irani or someone working on her behalf cut down 10 conifer trees on his property and that a dozen other trees were severely pruned.

The suit also alleges Irani told him, "I am not going to let your trees mess up the view of my $3.4 million home," when confronted about it.

The cost to replace the trees cut to stumps was about $46,700 and the pruned trees were reduced in value by at least $50,000, according to the  plaintiff.

The complaint further alleges that "assorted male guests" of Irani "can and do look directly into plaintiff's daughter's room," causing stress  to Matthews and his family.

City News Service contributed to this report

A military widow is heartbroken after someone stole her rental car containing items belonging to her late husband.

Jane Horton says she has dedicated her life to serving families of fallen soldiers since her husband, Spc. Chris Horton, was killed in Afghanistan in 2011.

“It’s consumed me," she said. "It’s become the greatest part of me to serve those that have given their lives and make sure their families are taken care of."

This week, Horton was in Dallas to attend a military initiative at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum when her rental car was stolen from Greenville Avenue.

“I know the people who took the car didn’t know, but it’s pretty heartbreaking," Horton said. "I’m pretty broken right now. I’m very upset."

Horton said she’d gone to a dinner at Ozona Bar and Grille and parked her car with valet.

A few hours into the dinner, a waitress approached her.

“I went back and they were like, nonchalantly, 'You’re car’s been stolen.' I was like, 'What?'” Horton said.

Horton said she hadn’t gone to the hotel yet, so inside the car were all of her belongings, including special items from the time her husband, a sniper, was at war.

“All my luggage and belongings and some personal items I’d brought of my husband’s to possibly give to the president and some other people,” she said.

Horton said also stolen was a very special necklace and earrings her husband had given to her around the time he proposed.

James Monroe, the manager of the company in charge of Horton’s rental car, said he believes crooks grabbed keys and stole two cars when his Superlative Valet employees were busy. One was recovered, but Horton’s was not.

Monroe said he’s working with police on the case and told NBC 5 he’d offer to help replace some of Horton’s items. The manager at Ozona said he is working with police to recover surveillance video of the theft.

The restaurant and Superlative Valet are offering a $3,000 reward for the return of Horton’s items.

Monroe added that there will no questions asked if the cherished belongings are returned to his company’s headquarters in Arlington or to Ozona Bar and Grille.

Horton pleaded that the thieves “please give me my stuff back." 

“It’s absolutely deplorable to take anyone’s belongings, but mine are very special to me and they mean the world to me," she said. "Nothing will ever bring back the loss of my husband, but it would be really nice to have something of the things he’d given me.”

NBC 5's Bianca Castro contributed to this report.

An infant died next to its distraught mother Thursday morning in Orange County, authorities said.

The 1-and-a-half-month-old baby was found unresponsive by its mother, whom it was sleeping next to in the family room of a Garden Grove home, according to the Garden Grove Police Department.

Paramedics arrived at the home, in the 12500 block of Adelle Street, at 2:28 a.m. but found the infant's heart had stopped and pronounced it deceased, police said.

"The mother was extremely distraught and was taken to the hospital," GGPD Lt. Bob Bogue wrote in a statement.

There was nothing suspicious about the baby's death, police said, but an autopsy is scheduled to be performed.

Officials did not say whether the infant was a boy or girl.

In honor of the Lunar New Year, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg delivered a message in Mandarin Chinese wishing everyone a happy one, in a video he posted on his own Facebook page.

As of midday Thursday, his video, which appears to be spoken in a pretty good Mandarin dialect in front of a red wall with Chinese lanterns dangling from the ceiling, had over 2 million views and more than 111,000 likes.

He apparently also has decided this is the Year of the Sheep, though others are quibbling that the year is dedicated to the goat or the ram.

"Happy Lunar New Year! 春节快乐!" his post reads."This is a moment of renewal and celebration each year. I hope you have a wonderful time surrounded by friends and family, and I hope that the Year of the Sheep brings you health and happiness."

Zuckerberg is married to Dr. Priscilla Chan, whose father is a Chinese-Vietnamese immigrant, according to the Daily Mail, who arrived in America with his family in the '70s after spending time in a refugee camp. He worked in a Chinese restaurant in Boston before moving his family to Palo Alto.

Zuckerberg, self-taught in the Chinese dialect, drew "gasps and laughter" from a crowd in Beijing during a 30-minute Q&A in October 2014 he conducted in Mandarin. Humbly, Zuckerberg said his "Chinese is horrible," according to the Guardian. But told the crowd that he decided to learn the language to communicate with his in-laws.

The man accused of murdering the McStay family of Fallbrook complained to the judge Thursday that he's not receiving the documents needed for his defense, according to social media posts from a reporter in the courtroom.

Charles Merritt, a former business partner of Joseph McStay, is accused of killing McStay along with Sunny McStay and the couple’s two boys in 2010.

On Thursday, Merritt served as his own attorney for the first time and asked for prosecution discovery documents and files on a computer that was seized by investigators, according to reporter Teri Figueroa.

Figueroa posted updates to Twitter as part of her coverage for U-T San Diego.

Merritt has said he wanted to represent himself because he only has six to eight months to live due to congestive heart failure and could not afford his own attorney.

The judge offered a court-appointed attorney at no cost, but Merritt declined.

For months after the Fallbrook family was reported missing, volunteers searched, cable shows highlighted their story and an investigation was launched by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.

It wasn’t until November 2013, that four bodies were uncovered in Victorville.

Another court hearing is scheduled in March with a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 7.

Hundreds of products are being pulled from store shelves after traces of peanut were found in cumin spice — a life-threatening danger to some people with peanut allergies.

The recall has been ongoing since December, as more retailers identify products that contain the cumin. The Food and Drug Administration is now warning all people with peanut allergies to avoid cumin and products that contain cumin.

While such large allergy-related recalls are rare, undeclared allergens like peanuts are the leading cause of food recalls in the United States. That can be very unsettling to people who are keeping a close watch on what they or their children eat, since food allergies can be a matter of life or death.

• Click here for Information on the FDA consumer alert
• Report a reaction to the FDA
• Click here for more information on the USDA recalls of meat products linked to cumin

"You might do all of the things you are supposed to do and read the label, but there could still be undeclared allergens," says Dr. Michael Pistiner, a Boston-based pediatric allergist. "It's challenging to know that and still feel comfortable."

Pistiner says he sees the recalls as low-risk, since often the amount of the undeclared allergen is very small. "But the highest risk is to our comfort," he says.

According to the group Food Allergy Research and Education, or FARE, 15 million Americans have food allergies, including 1 in 13 children. Eight foods account for more than 90 percent of the allergies — peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish and shellfish.

Since 2006, those allergens are required by law to be listed on food packages if they are ingredients. The law is less clear when it comes to cross- contamination, however — companies aren't required to list on the label if peanuts or another allergen are processed in the same facility or on the same equipment.

Little is known about how many people may have reactions to allergens that accidentally make their way into food. Those reactions are hard to track — much harder than a pathogen like salmonella, for instance, which can be identified in a person's stool and traced directly to the same strains in a food manufacturing facility or on a farm.

The FDA said it had 428 reports of "adverse events" related to undeclared allergens between January 2012 and December 2014, including reports of three deaths. The agency would not release any detailed information on those reports, which are made by consumers and can't always be confirmed by the agency.

The agency said it has had at least seven reports from consumers related to the cumin recall. Hundreds of products have been recalled since December, from spice mixes to black beans to meats with marinades that include cumin. The spice is often used in Tex-Mex and Indian dishes. The FDA declined to provide any further details on how it happened or what company added peanuts or peanut residue to its cumin spice.

The FDA said packaged foods may not have enough of the affected cumin to trigger a reaction — but those who are sensitive should be careful just in case. Some products may not actually list cumin, but list "spices" instead.

Multiple recalls have spanned a two-month period. The first was on Dec. 26, when Texas-based Adams Foods recalled several of its cumin spices. On Feb. 9, the retailer Whole Foods recalled more than 100 products that potentially contained the cumin. Last Friday, Goya Foods recalled some brands of its black beans and black bean soup. Several other foods have been pulled off store shelves as well.

FARE, the allergy group, routinely notifies its members of what recalls are out there so they can keep track. And the group is pushing the FDA to ensure that allergens are treated as importantly as pathogens like salmonella and E. coli when the agency issues final food safety rules later this year.

"Requiring food processors and manufacturers to identify potential allergen hazards and develop plans to avoid those hazards is critical," the group told the FDA in comments on the rule.

A dog was nailed inside a kennel and left to die just blocks away from an animal shelter in South Los Angeles.

The animal was abandoned in the crude wooden dog house, which had a board secured over the entrance, on a Florence back road with no food or water, where he was stuck for three days.

On Wednesday morning a police officer peaked inside and discovered the pooch, and local non profit group Ghetto Rescue Foundation (GRF) took him in.

"I’ve seen stabbed dogs, I’ve seen hit dogs, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I mean, the heartlessness," GRF volunteer Alison Featherstone said.

Vets found the animal, who is around 3-years-old, was is badly scarred and fighting a swelling infection on his leg.

Rescuers have named him Walter Worthy Higgins, and say he is affectionate despite his injuries.

"He let our volunteer pet him… coax him (out). He absolutely is a sweet dog," Featherstone said.

He is expected to fully recover, and it is hoped he will find a home with a caring owner.

A hazmat team was investigating suspicious letters sent to a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles Thursday morning, authorities said.

The team arrived at Stanley Mosk Courthouse, on 1st Street and Hill Avenue, according to LA County Sheriff's deputies. The HazMat team was investigating possibly threatening letters sent to a courthouse worker.

No evacuations have been issued since the 9:28 a.m. call reporting the letters, deputies said.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

Ride-hailing app Uber is launching a new carpooling service in Los Angeles Thursday.

UberPool will allow riders on similar routes to share travel and split the fare with strangers. 

While only two users can be matched per ride, each can have one person accompany them for a total of four passengers.

San Francisco-based Uber says it could reduce rates for users by about 50 per cent. 

Los Angeles is the fourth most congested metro area in the world, according to Inrix, a Kirkland, Wash.-based traffic research firm, with drivers wasting 66 hours in congestion over the past 12 months. 

UberPool is already offered in New York, San Francisco and Paris. 

The Associated Press contributed to this article

A man who set himself ablaze inside a Southern California Starbucks earlier this week died in the hospital, fire officials said Thursday.

The man, about 60 years old, lit himself on fire inside the bathroom of a Van Nuys Starbucks on Tuesday when bystanders heard "an explosive sound." He then staggered out of the bathroom and collapsed near the entrance, where Starbucks customers helped douse the flames, officials said.

The burns covered 90 percent of the man's body, officials said.

He died in the hospital on Wednesday, according to the LA Fire Department.

Officials did not provide additional details about the man.

Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight returned to jail Thursday afternoon after being taken from a West Los Angeles courthouse in an ambulance hours earlier during an arraignment unrelated to murder charges he faces, a court official said.

Knight, who was scheduled to submit a plea of guilty or not guilty on charges that he threatened a woman he allegedly stole a camera from in September, experienced a "medical issue" at Airport Courthouse, Commissioner Mark Zuckman told the courtroom.

His attorney, David Kenner, said he was having "stomach problems."

Knight was released from the hospital and returned to jail before 4 p.m., LASD spokeswoman Nicole Nishida said.

Knight was taken to the hospital at another court hearing in February, where he had an anxiety attack after pleading not guilty to murder and other charges in a separate hit-and-run case.

Already facing a robbery charge for allegedly stealing a celebrity photographer's camera along with comedian Katt Williams, prosecutors recently added the charge that the two made criminal threats against the photographer. Williams was expected in court on Thursday afternoon.

Authorities claim Knight and Williams stole the camera in a "strong-arm robbery" in a Beverly Hills alley, injuring photographer Leslie Redden.

Redden said Thursday she thought Knight was faking the injury.

"The Oscar goes to: Mr. Marion Knight," she said, wearing a brace on her wrist. "Every time he has to face what he's done, he runs, he's sick, he's got an excuse."

The Sept. 5 incident is unrelated to Knight's murder charge, for which he is in Los Angeles County Jail. Prosecutors claim Knight's pickup truck hit two men, killing one, in a Compton parking lot in January — charges he's denied, saying through attorneys that he was fleeing a beating when his car struck two men.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The long search is over for a Las Vegas teenager who was swept to sea from a beach in Orange County, as authorities were able to positively identify Thursday a body that washed up on shore.

Anthony Parnell, 18, was swept off the rocks at a popular Laguna Beach swimming area on Feb. 8, according to friends he was with at the time.

Rescue crews trawled the waters near the beach looking for Parnell. After a day, the search turned into a recovery mission, but were unable to find his body.

It washed on shore Wednesday, Feb. 18, about a half-mile south of Thousand Steps Beach, where he disappeared. The body was identified Thursday.

Parnell's family remembered him as a "good kid who was respectful and would always help even if he didn't want to." They said Parnell played high school football in Las Vegas and had recently signed up to join the Army.

NBC4's Christina Cocca contributed to this report.

Officers shot and wounded a neighbor's dog during a search for a boy or man who ransacked a home and stole a Mercedes in an upscale San Marino neighborhood Thursday morning, police said.

A nanny said she was returning to the home in the 900 block of Winston Avenue about 8 a.m. after dropping the kids off at school when she was confronted by man who was inside the garage and who had ransacked the home, San Marino police said.

He demanded that she give him everything she had, so she ran inside the home and locked herself in a closet and called 911, police said.

"She heard the suspect yelling at her to get off the phone, to come out, and she refused," said San Marino Police Chief John Incontro.

After a few minutes, she came outside and noticed a 2014 white Mercedes SUV with license plate #7CWA404 was missing along with the keys, police said.

That SUV was found abandoned in Sherman Oaks Thursday afternoon, with the engine still running.

When police came to investigate, they entered through a neighbor's backyard and were confronted by a large "aggressive" dog in the backyard, Incontro said. An officer then shot the dog.

"One officer fired one round. The dog continued toward the officer," Incontro said. "The officer again fearing for his safety fired a second round, striking the dog. The dog ran from that location."

The owner of the 5-year-old pit bull/boxer mix named Weezy said the dog will be OK, and the bullet did not strike any vital organs.

"They have to do what they have to," owner Sammy Abdelal said, adding that he accept the apology from San Marino police for shooting his dog.

Abdelal said he came outside his house to find Weezy bleeding, but the veterinarian said Weezy would recover just fine. He said he's proud of his pup for trying to protect the family.

"I imagine the same if its my wife or my daughter are home alone and sombody come and attack," he said. "It's the police job to take care of business."

Incontro said the shooting of the dog was the first officer-involved shooting in San Marino in 16 years.

Police were still searching for the intruder, who was last seen wearing a blue and black shirt with dark pants, wearing a fanny pack on his side.

San Marino is an upscale city a few miles southeast of Pasadena.

The cold might not bother Disney's Queen Elsa, but it's wreaking enough havoc in Kentucky that a police department announced a joke warrant for the popular "Frozen" character's arrest.

Police in the small, rural town of Harlan posted a Facebook message Wednesday about Elsa.

They wrote: "Suspect is a blonde female last seen wearing a long blue dress and is known to burst into song 'Let it Go!' As you can see by the weather she is very dangerous."

Police soon posted another message, telling residents that all kidding aside, they should take the weather seriously and be careful.

A massive system dropped more than a foot of snow in parts of Kentucky. Bitterly cold temperatures moved in Wednesday night and were likely to stay for several days.

The impact on gas prices was immediate after an explosion at a Torrance oil refinery Wednesday.

A worker at a Mobil gas station in nearby Hermosa Beach says he received a call from his boss to raise the price by 5 cents.

"He said it can go up tomorrow again," said the clerk, Romesh Fernando.

Some residents were feeling the pinch as prices began to rise across Southern California.

"Unfortunately gas prices tend to be volatile, and anything they can do to take advantage or raise the prices, they do," said Kevin Lamb of Redondo Beach.

The explosion "most likely will contribute to upward pressure on (gas) prices,'' Marie Montgomery of the Automobile Club of Southern California told City News Service.

"If there is extensive damage that results in a longer-term closure, obviously that (would) have a bigger impact.'' Montgomery said.

GasBuddy.com said prices could jump by 10 cents in the next week because of the blast.

The ExxonMobil Refinery, where about 155,000 barrels of crude oil are processed each day, has been part of the South Bay landscape since the 1920s.

Think you’re too smart to fall for a phone scam? So did the former mayor of a Southern California coastal town — until he became a victim.

Gary Nielson is the chef and owner of the Beachfront Barbeque Restaurant in tiny Carpinteria, California, just north of Ventura; he also served as a city leader.

"I was on the city council for eight years, I was the mayor for two of those years," he told NBC4.

With his ability to oversee budgets and serve his constituents, Nielson never could have predicted a scam artist would be able to trick him into handing over thousands of dollars.

It happened recently, as he prepared for the lunchtime rush at his restaurant. Working alone in the kitchen, he heard the phone ring.

When he picked up, a man claiming to be a customer service representative for Southern California Edison was on the other end of the line.

"He told me, 'I have a service man in your area who's been instructed to turn your power off because you have a disconnect notice, and you’re late on your bill,'" he recalled.

The call had come during the winter, when business is slow. Nielson knew he was late paying what he owed, and worried losing power would be a disaster for his restaurant.

"Each one of those things has perishables in it, and those perishables start degrading instantly," he said, pointing at his refrigerators.

The caller told Nielson the only way to avoid disconnection was by paying immediately with Money Pak cards.

"(He said) you need to buy four $500 (cards) and one $395 one," Nielson said.

Nielson rushed to a nearby drugstore and did as he was told, giving the caller the card information. Even worse, the scammer called back, threatening disconnection if he didn’t pay part of next month’s bill.

All told, he paid $3,395 — despite having owed just $1,700. He only realized his mistake when he told his wife what had happened.

"She said 'Oh my God, you were scammed," Nielson recalled.

And he's not alone.

The I-Team reached out to Southern California Edison, which said about 14,000 customers have reported being targeted by this ruse.

"Five-hundred of those customers unfortunately were victims of the scam," said Kari Gardner, SoCal Edison’s manager of community affairs.

She said the utility company is now warning customers about these phone scams on its websites, and in its monthly bills.

"Southern California Edison will not call a customer and demand immediate payment to avoid interruption," she said.

Nielson told NBC4 he wish he'd had that information before his phone rang that winter morning.

"You’re embarrassed, humiliated, frustrated," Nielson said. But he’s speaking out, because he knows he’s not alone.

"Every time I say something to somebody, they have this story of somebody that they know personally (who has) been scammed in one way or another," he said.

SoCal Edison said there are a few specific warning signs that you're on the phone with a scammer:

• "Off" Phone Numbers: Southern California Edison (SCE) only uses 800 numbers for customer contacts – phone scammers often use "off" numbers, such as 888.
• Extension Numbers: Imposters use extension numbers to make themselves appear more "legitimate." SCE does not use extension numbers.
• Threats: SCE will not threaten customers with service shut-off until after 2 weeks of warnings.
• Reloaded Debit Cards: SCE does not accept Green Dot, Vanilla, or other reload debit cards.
• Weekend/Holiday Calls: SCE does not call customers on weekends or during holidays.

If you have a tip on this story — or anything else — the I-Team wants to hear from you. Give us a call at 818-520-TIPS or email nbc4iteam@nbcuni.com.