Four people were arrested after a waitress and mother of two children was run down in an Orange County restaurant parking lot when she confronted a group of customers that left without paying their $45 bill.

The woman, an employee at Mexico Lindo Restaurant in Anaheim, was hospitalized with minor to moderate leg injuries, which were not considered life threatening. Authorities initially identified the victim as a 19-year-old woman, but a restaurant employee later confirmed she is a 27-year-old mother of two.

The four customers, a man and three women ranging in age from 18 to 24, attempted to drive away without paying their bill at about 6 p.m. Sunday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Restaurant surveillance cameras captured the man and three women leaving their table without paying the bill before they are followed to the parking lot by the waitress, who knocked on the window of their black Volkswagen Jetta.

The driver then backed out of the parking spot in reverse, said a co-worker. Surveillance video showed the driver pulling forward, knocking the woman to the ground and slowly running her over with the passenger side front and rear tire.

"It's a miracle," said co-worker Carlos Huerta. "It never stopped. So the car was going back and forth, and then it went over her.

"It's horrible. It's a miracle she's still alive."

The car ran over her legs, but they were not broken, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Anaheim firefighters arrived at the scene in the 10900 block of Magnolia Street  and transported her to UCI Medical Center where she was treated for cuts and bruises.

Four people were arrested in connection with the case early Monday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department. The suspects were identified as Rowshaid Pellum, 24, Cerritos; Markeisha Williams, 18, Long Beach; Shyteice Miles, 19, Long Beach and Santeea Ralph, 23, Long Beach.

They were booked into the Orange County Jail on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy and defrauding an innkeeper, a legal term used to describe the act of obtaining food from a restaurant without paying. It was not immediately clear whether they have an attorney.

Deputies on patrol near a Stanton Motel 6 noticed a vehicle that matched the description of the one involved in the hit-and-run crash. The driver, booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, and three passengers were taken into custody, according to the sheriff's department.

The driver and three other vehicle occupants also are accused of leaving a restaurant without paying, deputies said.

NBC4's Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.

A Riverside County high school was placed on lockdown Monday afternoon after a threat to the school was reported on social media.

Lake Elsinore High School was put on lockdown at 12:50 p.m. after a non-specific threat was made against the school on social media, Riverside County Sheriff's deputies said.

Students' days were going normally, following procedure, but no one was being allowed into the school from the outside, deputies said.

Refresh this page for updates on this developing story.

Carlos Montoya's birth certificate shows he was born in Los Angeles in 1977. But when he tried to come back to the U.S. from Mexico on March 1, he says border agents deported him.

"I showed them everything," he said, admitting he struggles with English. "And they took everything away from me."

Montoya, who showed his birth certificate to NBC4, says he spent the last year in Mexico undergoing treatment for epilepsy but had been traveling back and forth to Mexico for treatment every six months before then.

He says he always carried his birth certificate, social security card, and California ID card and had no problems. But he says when he scanned his fingerprints this time, something very different came up on the border patrol’s screen.

Attorney Luis Carrillo who now represents Montoya, explained.

"What pops up on the screen is a photo of another individual and they turn the screen and they show him," Carillo said. "And Carlos says, 'That’s an impostor, ‘yo soy Carlos Montoya,’ and they say, 'No, you’re the impostor.' And he says, 'No, I’m Carlos Montoya."

Montoya's sister said her brother was born in Los Angeles in 1977 and has spent much of his life in Mexico, particularly recently as, she says, medication and treatment for epilepsy is cheaper there.

The Chief Customs and Border Patrol Office and Public Affairs Liaison in San Diego, Angelica De Cima provided this statement to NBC4:

“While we are not at liberty to discuss an individual’s processing due to the Privacy Act, we can provide general information about document requirements for U.S. citizens. As part of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), U.S. citizens entering the United States at sea or land ports of entry have been required to present a WHTI-compliant document such as a valid passport, U.S. passport card, Trusted Traveler Program card or an Enhanced Driver’s License since June 2009. For more information about documents required to enter the U.S. please click on (this) link."

Montoya couldn’t provide anything else, admitting he did not have a passport, so he said after a four-hour interrogation and two nights in a jail cell, he felt forced to do whatever the border agent told him.

He claims he was coerced to come up with a fake name — he says he chose Jose Francisco Garcia-Garcia — and to sign the paperwork that would deport him back to Mexico. Among the questions he says he was forced to answer falsely — that he was born in Mexico and that he had never been to the United States.

Carrillo is asking the U.S. Inspector General to investigate the case, claiming coercion, incompetence and even corruption. All the while, Montoya remains in Nayarit, Mexico, hoping to come back home to Compton, California.

Police said Monday they've been investigating a link between the 1971 disappearance of a Middlebury College student and millionaire murder suspect Robert Durst.

Investigators have been aware for several years of a link between 18-year-old Lynne Schulze and Durst, who operated the All Good Things health food store in the town, the Middlebury Police Department said in a statement.

Schulze, a native of Simsbury, Connecticut, who entered Middlebury College as a freshman in September 1971, was last seen that December. 

The Schulze case was reopened in 1992 and has continuously generated leads, police said.

Middlebury police call it an ongoing criminal investigation and say they aren't releasing any other details. 

Meanwhile, Vermont State Police were recently looking into unsolved homicide cases and are now looking into any links to Robert Durst. But so far, officers say they are not aware “of any information from the FBI with regard to unsolved crimes and Durst.”

The 71-year-old Durst is a member of a wealthy New York real estate family that runs 1 World Trade Center. He's charged with killing a woman 15 years ago in Los Angeles. He's been ordered held on weapons charges in Louisiana, where a judge decided he's a flight risk and a danger to others after considering what FBI agents found in his hotel room — an elaborate disguise and other escape tools fit for a spy movie.

Durst was arrested at a hotel in New Orleans, where he had registered under a fake name and was lying low while HBO aired the final chapters of his life story, a documentary series called "The Jinx."

Authorities said FBI agents found Durst's passport and birth certificate, stacks of $100 bills, bags of marijuana, a gun, a map folded to show Louisiana and Cuba and a flesh-toned latex mask with salt-and-pepper hair.

"This was not a mask for Halloween," Assistant District Attorney Mark Burton said.

Durst's lawyers say his arrest was illegal. They say the timing of an agent's inventory proves the search was illegal.

"That's an improper search," defense attorney Dick DeGuerin told the judge.

Durst, who previously was acquitted of murder after a neighbor's dismembered body was found in a Texas bay in 2001, appeared in court Monday with his hands shackled to his sides in padded cuffs. He has been in a prison's mental health unit for nearly a week. Prison officials have called him a suicide risk.

Authorities have said they believe Schulze, at the time of her disappearance, may have been a little depressed and self-conscious because of an acne condition but appeared to be well-adjusted. In 2005 they called her "a typical, wholesome, all-American kid off at college" who "wasn't into the counterculture scene of that time."

On Dec. 10, 1971, Schulze was with some friends heading to a final exam when she told them she had to go back to her room to get a pencil, police said in 2005.

"She didn't show up for the exam," Officer Vegar Boe said then. "Later, her friends went back to her room. All her stuff was there, but she was gone."

A nine-year-old boy fell 40-feet down a well on a vacant property in Mineral Wells, Texas, on Saturday but was pulled to safety by his “hero” neighbors, his family said.

Jaxson Tune suffered head injuries but was released from the hospital on Monday and is talking and walking around, according to family.

“All I remember is waking up with one light above me and I was very cold and I didn’t know what was going on,” Tune said of the accident.

It was just around 3 p.m. on Saturday, when Tune's aunt called 911, telling the dispatcher her nephew “fell into a well.”

Shawnee Coomer said Tune and other neighborhood kids were playing in the grass of a home that no one lives in next door, near the Airport Mobile Home Park. While Tune was doing pull-ups on a bar over the well when he fell.

"All he remembers is picking flowers and then waking up in the hospital," Coomer said. "He doesn't remember the accident, he doesn't remember falling through."

His mother, Teresa Degarmo, was overwhelmed when she got the call about her son Saturday.
“Hysterical, that’s about the only way to describe it. Nobody expects to hear leaving work that your son fell into a well,” she said.

The family said their neighbors, Joshua Richard and Christopher Hicks, rushed to the well, pulling off the remaining pieces of tin and tile covering the well and then finding a long strap to lower Hicks down.

"They helped out a lot, he probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them," Coomer said.

Hicks said he thought the well was only a foot or two deep, but discovered it was deeper then he is tall.

"When I got down there, I was up to here," Hicks said, referring to his chest.

Hicks was able to brace himself in the well and pulled Tune onto his lap, while Richard and others used the strap to pull Tune out.

"I'm just glad I was able to be around and he was around when we did (act), because there's no telling what would have happened to that little boy," Richard said.

A Mineral Wells police officer also went into the well to help get Hicks out. The family and many other neighbors consider Hicks to be a hero.

"I don't consider myself a hero," Hicks said. "I did what any good natured human would do. They're calling me a hero, an angel; I'm not. I'm just a normal human being.”

Tune suffered a fractured scull and was taken to Palo Pinto General Hospital and then transferred to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth. He had surgery to relieve the pressure from that injury, but it went so well he was released from the hospital just before 5 p.m. Monday, family said.

“I feel great since I get to go home. I get to sleep in my own bed again,” Tune said outside the hospital Monday.

Tune and his mother are both thanking everyone who saved the boy's life.

“'Thank you'’, is all I can say. Very blessed, very blessed. Don’t know what we would have done if they wouldn’t have been there,” Degarmo said.

NBC 5's Kevin Cokely and Holley Ford contributed to this story.

A 32-year-old woman was killed in a freak accident after a gravel truck tipped onto her car in Martinez, California, Monday afternoon, crushing her inside it, Martinez police and the California Highway Patrol said.

The woman was identified as Lindsey Combs. Family members say Combs' 4-year-old daughter ran out of the house and saw the accident in their driveway. Combs' fiancé was in the house at the time.

The accident happened at 820 Shell Ave around 1 p.m., when the truck was delivering gravel for the Shell Avenue sidewalk construction project. According to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, a member of the JJR Construction crew asked Combs to move her car. Preliminary reports indicate that as soon as Combs got into her car, a truck trailer loaded with gravel tipped over, crushing her vehicle, Cal-OSHA said.

But truck driver Darryl Crockett told NBC Bay Area he had nothing to do with asking Combs to move the car. Crockett said he was about to drop a load of gravel and his trailer was very near the top of its lift. The last time he saw the car it was right next to the garage door, and when the truck tipped over, the car had moved 10 feet closer to the sidewalk putting it in harms way, he said.

Crockett said he hasw been delivering gravel for 30 years and nevver had a trailer tip over on him — until the tragic accident Monday.

JRR Construction says another worker asked Combs to move her car further away.

Contra Costa County Fire officials said the trailer's "dump capacity" being used on a hill may have caused some stability issues.

According to Travis Hagerthy, who witnessed the incident, at least three men, including himself and two construction crew workers, tried to help Combs before firefighters arrived.

"I started helping them dig, and I cut my foot a little bit on the broken glass," Hagerthy said. "I yelled at them to get a backoe up there." One of the men from the construction team used a backhoe to rip off the backdoor to the car.

"As far as I know she was either pulling in or backing up and the truck was pulling in to dump the gravel," Hagerthy said.

Hagerthy said that after construction crew members tried to rip off the backdoor, he look inside the car and found the woman "smashed." "It's horrible," he said.

Regina Simmons worked as a hair stylist with Combs at Sport Clips in Pleasant Hill.

"She was a beautiful mother, very happy," Simmons said. "She was in a good place in her life right now. This is very tragic."

Family and friends gathered at the scene of the accident Monday night to pay tribute to Combs, including some who grew up wuth her.

"She was sweet and loving and loved her daughter so much, always posting pictures and talking about her on Facebook," said her friend Jessica Dixon-Estes.

Responding to speculation from commenters on NBC Bay Area's Facebook page about whether a lawsuit would be filed, Combs' brother Rob Combs wrote: "A lawsuit won't bring my sister back, my niece's mother back, my mom's daughter back. Nothing will bring my sister back nothing at all."

NBC Bay Area's Gonzo Rojas and Terry McSweeney contributed to this report.

#UPDATE: Witness: 3 men tried to help woman trapped inside car after truck fell on it. http://t.co/eBBOrJ1yMo https://t.co/JIEHIwf1y5

— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) March 23, 2015

Amy’s Kitchen, Inc. is voluntarily recalling approximately 73,897 cases of certain frozen food products due to a possible health risk.

The recall is based on a recall notice from one of Petaluma-based Amy’s organic spinach suppliers that Amy’s may have received organic spinach with the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes, an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems, according the company's release.

Amy’s Kitchen is not aware of any illness complaints to date related to the recalled products, the release said.

The recalled products were distributed to stores nationwide in the United States and in Canada.

For a complete list of the recalled products, CLICK HERE.

Amy’s Kitchen has notified its distributors and retailers.

Consumers who have any of the products are urged to dispose them or return them to the store where they were purchased for an exchange or full refund.

Consumers may also call Amy’s at (707) 781-7535, Monday through Friday between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. CST.

A 45-foot cell tower going up at a Southern California fire station that could help first responders save lives has some residents fuming.

The one at Los Angeles County Fire Station 23 is one of 177 such towers being fast-tracked for fire and sheriff's stations around the county, much to the dismay of homeowners who say they have been blindsided.

"It is ugly," said Willie Thomas, adding it went up almost overnight with little warning. "I didn't know what it was."

Cathy Nichols, a Rolling Hills resident, said when residents tried to object she said officials told them they couldn't say anything or do anything.

The towers are part of a new communications system to link the 81 different police and fire agencies in LA County so they can talk to each other in a major disaster. Those 81 agencies operate on 40 different radio systems, officials said.

Patrick Mallon, the director of the Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System, said that when finished, the towers will offer dedicated phone and data service to agencies throughout the county.

But federal funding for the program runs out in September, which was why approval was granted by the state legislature for the program to circumvent the California Environmental Quality Act as well as standard public hearings and review.

This has infuriated not just nearby homeowners but the county's firefighters union, are worried about health concerns from radiation exposure, said Lewis Currier, of the LA County Firefighters Association Local 1014.

The matter goes to the board of supervisors Tuesday.

The union plans on a big turnout.

Murrieta City Councilman Jonathan Ingram is facing a federal lawsuit filed by a Fullerton man who claimed his civil rights were violated even as both sides claimed to be the victims of cyberbullying.

U.S. Navy veteran Jeffrey Benson alleges in the lawsuit that Ingram falsely accused him of making terroristic threats last year during the city council elections, which led to him being arrested by Murrieta police.

"I want to make sure what happened to me doesn't happen to other people in the next election," Benson said Monday.

Benson said the claims of threats were made up in retaliation for his criticism of Ingram and his claims during the campaign.

"It was a negative campaign, to be honest, and that's political speech," he said.

Benson created an anti-Ingram Facebook page after finding out what he calls damaging information about Ingram’s business past.

"This guy Jon Ingram was running as small businessman for 25 years," Benson said. "That was his platform. I discovered he hasn't owned a business in 25 years."

But Benson said he never threatened violence against Ingram, and only said that his campaign would come to a bad ending.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s office eventually declined to prosecute Benson because of a lack of evidence.

Benson said despite the dismissal of charges, he lost his job as a substitute teacher because of the arrest. He is now seeking unspecified damages.

But Ingram’s family said Benson’s campaign against the candidate was about much more than politics.

"I don't understand why he feels it's OK to attack my father by proxy to try and get to me. That's what this is about," said Ashley Hutchinson, Ingram’s daughter.

Hutchinson said Benson is a cyberbully who has been cyberstalking her for years.

She believes Benson has some kind of vendetta against her, stemming from when they went to junior college together.

Hutchinson showed NBC4 emails she said Benson sent her last year while she was pregnant and her husband was stationed in Afghanistan.

"He said my unborn child should just commit suicide before being born into a family like mine," Hutchinson said through tears.

Benson denies cyberstalking Hutchinson.

Hutchinson said he became involved in the Murrieta city council race, despite being a Fullerton resident, when he was hired by a medical marijuana advocate to find out which candidates supported dispensaries, and he was not targeting Ingram because of any type of grudge.

"It's just shameful that he would use his daughter,” Benson said. “Just to sound like she's the victim when it's only between Jon Ingram and I."

An increasing percentage of VA health care appointments in greater Los Angeles are being scheduled within the 30-day time frame set by the Obama Administration, according to figures shared at a town hall meeting for veterans Monday night at the Hollywood American Legion post.

Nearly 92 percent of appointments scheduled as of March 1 met the standard, according to Dr. Dean Norman, chief of staff for the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare system. In raw numbers, that represents 80,815 appointments.

But the appointments for 7,084 — or 8 percent of the total — stretched more than 30 days out. The audit data are posted on the VA website. 

It represents an improvement from reporting as of Aug. 1, 2013, which showed more than 13 percent of appointments failed to meet the 30-day standard.  

Reducing delays in providing health care became a priority of the Obama Administation after the revelation a year ago of a secret wait list at the VA in Phoenix. Later came reports of secret lists at other VA facilities, for the apparent purpose of hiding how long many had to wait, which in some cases was more than a year. 

The Obama administration responded with a pledge the VA would schedule and fulfill appointments within 30 days, or cover the cost of private medical care outside the VA.

In the past year, the American Legion has held a series of town halls across the nation.

"In most places, veterans tell us wait times have gotten shorter," said Verna Jones, American Legion executive director.

Business owners met Monday night in Venice to talk about increasing security after a string of clashes between shop proprietors and transients living in the area.

While closed to anyone who doesn’t own a business in the area, most spoke positively after the meeting.

"The one thing we can take from this is, that we can make a good thing out of a bad thing happen," said Clabe Harteley, owner of The Cow’s End Cafe.

On Saturday, Harteley's finger was partially bitten off in a fight with a transient, drawing additional attention to the neighborhood.

"Somebody said ‘Clabe you're bleeding! Your finger’s bleeding,'" he said. He looked down and the tip of his finger was gone. Doctors were not able to reattach it.

The man responsible, identified as Johnathan Lemmons, was arrested.

The fingertip incident was not on the agenda at the meeting, but was the minds of many.

"The issue that happened at the Cow’s End is partially security. It is partially safety. It is partially homelessness. Those are all issues on our list," said Brittney Seeliger, an organizer of the meeting.

"If you attract people from all over the country to come live for free on Venice Beach, and if you feed them, within that population are going be some folks that are lethal and are dangerous," said Mark Ryavec of the Venice Stakeholders Association.

But Nicholas Cavins, who has been homeless for seven years and is a fixture on the Venice sidewalks, said not all of the transient population in the area is dangerous.

He did acknowledge that many are mentally ill, but added "We’re not all psychotic, or dangerous."

He said he has to deal with that growing segment of the population, too.

"I deal with it all the time. They try to invade my places, too," he said. "Spots that I sleep at."

After 46 years in Venice Harteley is hopeful this latest violence will prompt policies that improve living conditions for everyone.

A 16-year-old boy was killed while crossing the 91 Freeway in Riverside.

He had almost made it across when he was hit by a car at around 10 p.m. just east of Tyler Street Tuesday, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

The teen crossed the westbound lanes, jumped the central divider, and had almost made it over the other side of the road when he was struck.

The driver remained on scene and reported the crash. The events leading up to it are being investigated.

The Los Angeles Lakers start a five-game road trip on Tuesday evening, and the first stop is Oklahoma City, where Long Beach native Russell Westbrook and the Thunder welcome the Lakers to Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Thunder superstar Kevin Durant, who is the reigning league MVP, recently took a step back in his rehabilitation from a foot injury. Per Royce Young of ESPN, Durant was "removed from basketball activities" and is currently flirting with missing the remainder of the season according to Thunder general manager Sam Presti.

The day before Presti updated Durant's status, Westbrook scored 36 points to go along with 14 assists and 10 rebounds in a victory over the best team in the East, the Atlanta Hawks. The day after Durant's status update, Westbrook finished one rebound shy of a triple-double in a one-sided victory over the playoff-chasing Miami Heat.

Durant or not, the Oklahoma City Thunder can beat the best, and Westbrook deserves recognition for his astonishing play. The 26-year-old has logged seven triple-doubles in his last 13 games. From Feb. 24, when Westbrook started a four-game streak of triple-doubles, to Mar. 24, when the Lakers play the Thunder, the volcanic guard is averaging 32.2 points, 11.1 assists and 10.3 rebounds per game.

Yes, Westbrook has averaged a triple-double for a full month of the NBA season. The fact that he accomplished that remarkable feat while averaging 30-plus points per game is mind-boggling. Westbrook may not be in position to win a title if Durant's status does not dramatically improve, but he is the single most exciting player in the NBA at the moment.

Facing Westbrook, the Lakers roll out rookie point guard Jordan Clarkson. While the Lakers' rookie appears to be hitting a metaphorical wall at this late stage of the season, facing Westbrook promises to provide a few spotlight moments for the 22-year-old. Clarkson fits the Westbrook model in that he is an over-sized point guard with a shoot-first mentality, exceptional speed and next-level athleticism. If Clarkson turns into anything close to Westbrook, that $1 million the Lakers spent on the second round draft pick could be the best investment the Lakers have made in a long time.

Entering Tuesday night's game, Westbrook appears to be realizing his potential, while the Lakers' rookie has barely glimpsed all that he can be. Clarkson versus Westbrook may not exactly sell tickets in Oklahoma City, but for fans of the Lakers still watching games in LA, Mar. 24 is about as good as the season gets from here on out.

Tip-off is 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Game Notes: Lakers coach Byron Scott will not be present due to the passing of his mother. Assistant coach Paul Pressey will assume the lead seat on the bench. Prior to the team departing, Scott announced that Clarkson, Jeremy Lin, Wesley Johnson, Ryan Kelly and Tarik Black will start Tuesday's game. Nick Young, who suffered a fracture in his left kneecap, remains sidelined for the Lakers.

A 2-acre brush fire burned near homes in the Valencia area near Magic Mountain Monday afternoon, and two men were detained for questioning after authorities became suspicious that the fire may have been intentionally set.

The fire was reported to have spread to about one acre just after 4 p.m., according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The fire was reported in the 24000 block of Magic Mountain Parkway near the Santa Clara River at 3:45 p.m.

Aerial footage showed ground crews battling the fire as helicopter crews dropped water from above.

The fire was extinguished after 5 p.m.

If you have a wireless connection in your home, you may be making a mistake that's putting your private information at risk.

The trouble spot: Your wireless router, the small blinking device that's probably sitting on your desk, or stashed in a corner. This piece of equipment, which connects your gadgets to one another and to the Internet, turns out to be vulnerable to hackers.

According to research presented in London at the CrestCon & IISP Congress 2015, an annual gathering of computer security experts from around the globe, poor security on millions of routers represents a major threat to consumer's information.

Cisco consultant Kyle Lovett told an audience that between 25 and 80 million devices used in homes and small offices can be accessed remotely because users rarely change the default administrative passwords.

Attackers can easily locate lists of default passwords for just about every brand of wireless router sold or distributed by Internet service providers.

With access to your router, a hacker can intercept the information passing through your network, which could include your social security number, credit card information, and more.

If you never changed your default password, now's the time to do it, and here's how:

• Identify your router's brand name and model number
• Visit support page on the maker's website
• Search for "administrator password," which should take you to step-by-step instructions on how to change it
• Choose a complex password (one you can't find in a dictionary)

A morning blaze involving four carports burned in the Pomona area Tuesday, destroying one car. 

The fire was reported in the 1100 block of Pasadena Street shortly after 6 a.m.

A spokesman from the Los Angeles County Fire Department said it was “fully involved," when they responded. It started in a nearby dumpster and spread to the carport area.

The fire was knocked down at 6:22 a.m, officials said. 

No injuries were reported, officials said.

Investigators were on scene to determine the cause of the blaze. 

Angelina Jolie has penned an op-ed for The New York Times revealing how she voluntarily underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Two years ago Jolie chronicled her preventative double mastectomy after learning she carries the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her chances of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

Jolie’s mother died of ovarian cancer and she lost her aunt to breast cancer.

In the op-ed piece published Tuesday, "Angelina Jolie Pitt: Diary of a Surgery," Jolie wrote she had planned on having the laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy surgery ever since making the decision to undergo the mastectomy, but felt compelled to do it immediately after a routine test turned up elevated inflammatory markers that could indicate the on-set of cancer.

"I had been planning this for some time. It is a less complex surgery than the mastectomy, but its effects are more severe. It puts a woman into forced menopause," she wrote. "So I was readying myself physically and emotionally, discussing options with doctors, researching alternative medicine, and mapping my hormones for estrogen or progesterone replacement. But I felt I still had months to make the date."

Jolie wrote that her husband, actor Brad Pitt, was on a plane to see her immediately after she learned she needed to have surgery.

The actress and director, 39, went on to reiterate that her decision may not be right for every woman, but after speaking to many doctors, surgeons and naturopaths, she felt good about her choice.

"The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally."

Jolie chose to keep her uterus, opting out of a hysterectomy, and last week underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.

"I feel feminine, and grounded in the choices I am making for myself and my family," she wrote in the Times. "I know my children will never have to say, 'Mom died of ovarian cancer.'"

An Italian musician said he feels violated after a thief set his car alight in Los Angeles before coming back to steal and iPod out of the vehicle.

Vincenzzo Marranca was stunned when he discovered his car had been torched at around 3:30 a.m. Monday on 4700 block of West Jefferson Boulevard in the West Adams district.

Surveillance footage showed the culprit sifting through a bin, then stuffing what looks like blankets underneath the 2001 Volkwagen Beetle and setting it on fire.

"I… feel violated a little bit. I don't know if I want to come here at night anymore," Marranca, who plays bass for rock band "We Are Kings & Queens," said.  "Sometimes we play until 3 or 4 in the morning. What if I was coming out of a recording session and I caught the guy and he had a gun for example?"

After the Los Angeles Fire Department put out the fire, the man came back almost an hour later to pick through the wreckage, and ended up taking an iPod.  

His bandmate Jonathan Mahan said the incident could have been far more serious.

"He could have just smashed a window. He put all of us in danger," Mahan said, "There's houses right back here. There is a building right here, it could've burned down."

A body has been found near an abandoned car that was the focus of an investigation to find a missing Riverside County man.

A search and rescue team made the discovery at around 11 a.m. Monday while looking for war veteran Robert Cricks in the Fallbrook area of San Diego County.

A silver alert, which is similar to an amber alert, had been issued after the severe dementia sufferer drove off while his wife went into a McDonalds in Murrieta last Thursday.

She had taken the key fob, however the vehicles ignition system allows it to idle without the key, according to Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies.

While his wife was inside Cricks got into the driver's seat and drove off down Winchester Road toward Temecula. Since he did not have the key fob, if the engine was shut off he could not start it again.

Deputies had  been searching Riverside County and San Diego County for several days, and on Sunday evening they finally found cricks the in northern Fallbrook around 10 miles southwest from his starting location. The next day a body was found near the car off Deluz Road.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner is working to identify the body.