our delia gonsalves is live outside of fair oaks mall. and delia, you say police are reporting an increase in this, this time of year? >> reporter: absolutely. a record number of arrests and seizures of money and of stolen merchandise. they are blaming the economy for this spike and shoplifting. but thanks to some aggressive police work at area malls like here at fair oaks, they've managed to make a lot of arrests and recover several thousand dollars worth of stolen merchandise. one bust, for instance, netted more -- more than $58,000 worth of merchandise. most work undercover waiting to catch the thieves. >> we were at $14,000 in stolen merchandise stolen recovery and my year already this year is at $22,000. >> reporter: police say shoplifters are getting more aggressive and assaulting officers and even carrying guns and shoplifting items more than $200 is a felony. and this is certainly very important for the customers perspective because mall managers tell me if these stolen items are not recovered, someone has to pay and in the end it

. >> but as delia goncalves shows us, one school principal is trying to change that. >> 'twas the night before christmas. >> reporter: it starts with a story. >> not a creature was stirring. >> reporter: and ends with a surprise visit. >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: but this christmas celebration is really about the spirit of glassmanor elementary school in oxon hill, giving hope to hundreds of families struggling to put food on the table and gifts under the tree. >> giving away the gifts to the kids. something the kids don't have too much. >> i've never heard of a school doing that so it shocked me last year when they did it. >> it's about the kids and about maintaining our attendance. >> reporter: in fact, that's how the gift giveaway started in 2005, the school was facing record poor attendance so they came up with an incentive program and it worked. >> our attendance is 9494 points -- is now 94 points. >> all students who attend school here will get a gift but because of the snow there was a slight delay in some donations. the rest of the gifts will be distributed to each and eve

delia, any reason why our area is prime for these folks? >> reporter: police say the area, specifically northern virginia, because of the high- end malls. we're not talking about shoplifters who steal a pair of jeans and walk away from the store n. many cases these thieves are walking away with bagfuls of merchandise. in the midst of holiday shoppers, thieves are lingering, looking for an opportunity. >> there are so many things going on and they try to take advantage of that. >> reporter: but also blending into the crowd at fair oaks mall are eight undercover police officers waiting to catch the shoplifters. >> they are very organized and they know what they want to steal. they usually have multiple players, multiple vehicles. >> reporter: and during one arrest, they found a car. >> the vehicle was -- inside the vehicle was $13,000 in merchandise. >> reporter: this is one of the two uniformed officers who also patrols fair oaks and said the shoplifters are organized and becoming aggressive. assaulting officers, even brandishing guns. the r

the conditions, and delia is in fairfax. we're going to start with you. tell us more about the conditions where you are. >> reporter: well the snow has stop falling here in fairfax county, but it has left behind a small coating of snow on the ground. let's take a look. we're talking just about two inches or so of accumulation. this is pretty much snow that was untouched. it's pretty light and fluffy as you can see, but it's not a whole lot of snow. however, just enough snow to cause some trouble for drivers and for these folks behind me. filling up a whole lot of overtime work for those plow truck operators. 23 degrees and snow on the ground, welcome to winter wonderland, at least for the kids. fairfax county schools dismissed two hours early. >> i guess that they are happy to come out. >> reporter: but for those who had to get behind a wheel, the small amount of accumulation was just enough to cause some big headaches. like for this driver who lost control on the roads. what was it like today? >> just terrible. it's scary, but there are a lot of accident

take it closer really only the leftover rain we're seeing is right on through, it looks like we're delia it split, for the most part we are in the dry. here's a look at your current temperatures, temperatures in the 40's and '50's as well. san francisco is at 51 degrees and 49 in oakland, 47 in napa and concord as well. here's a look at your satellite radar engineer expecting a series of storms to move on through and not only wet weather expected but some isolated showers with the latter part of your weekend having a good amount of what weather heading your way. this year's show is continuing throughout the weekend disyllables expected to stay is 7,000 ft. for today and tomorrow and later on this weekend this note is really expected to it picked on up. you are certainly lead to major chains and this year this weekend. later on it is getting down into the team's and into the low 20s. it should stay in the 60s in certain spots like santa rosa and send the file and his san francisco at the temperatures are popping out right around 60 degrees. it is a little bit warmer in san jose, at 64 deg

a new accident just reported near the car delia junction. westbound 80 at the scales. it is blocking a lane. traffic slows once again out of fairfield. the toll plaza to the 880 overcrossing. a new crash in the south bay. northbound 17 at laurel. we'll go to maps and show you that so you can see traffic is heavy out of santa cruz towards summit road. it is blocking one of the lanes. a tree down highway 84 at skyline boulevard. another tree down north in the santa rosa area, porter creek rode closed now at calistoga road. go to our website at abc7news.com. it's all under the bay area traffic link. eric, jenelle. >> time 6:55. >> recapping our top stories. the latest in a showdown in the battle over same sex marriage takes place this morning in a federal courtroom in san francisco. >> abc 7's terry mcsweeney is live with more. >> the people on the steps want to be inside that courtroom when the justices hear arguments on both sides of the same sex marriage issue. protestors followed this issue wherever it's been heard. protestors out here later today. attorney general je

delia right back., five zeroth skier and a live look at tahoe snow on the ground and i'll bet she more on the way pretty good storm system rolling through. >> rear exit the shares through the day. the north bay is expecting an inch and a half of rain, san francisco around the bay could get more than three- quarters of an inch. less rain in the sense a bit still everyone is expecting to get what today. radar, you can see all of the wet weather really disturbing to encompass much of the day the heavy stuff is to the north, still on the peninsula plenty of rain along downtown santa does go, 101280. up into the north bay all of this yellow this is where we see the heavy downpour taking a closer, rate around santa rosa, pretty heavy downhauls. heading towards dry creek road towards yet to go. wine country certainly getting a good dose of that wet weather. rain and your fairfield, vacaville, napa getting some pretty heavy cells. looks like it's such as to the north of criteria. rarely heavy downpours this morning, as we take a wider look in the pacific, all of that rainfall just waiting to s

. >> delia, rick, deborah, appreciate you being here. >>> "today" looks back at the year in pop culture right after this. urchase. so we earned a trip to vegas twice as fast! [ brays ] and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang. is caesar home? we get double miles every time we use our card, no matter what we're buying. thank you! thank you very much! [ garth ] it's hard to beat double miles! if anyone objects, let them speak now or forever hold their... [ bleats ] [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one. money magazine's best rewards card if you aim to rack up airline miles. what's in your wallet? cannonball!! [ clang ] the moisturizer in other body washes sits on top of skin. only dove has nutriummoisture, which can nourish deep down. dove body wash with nutriummoisture. superior natural nourishment for your skin. we could do weight watchers online together. it was easy, it was flexible and it worked. ok -- i've got ground turkey, i've got bell peppers so he'd plug it into the recipe builder and it just pulls up tons of recipe options. laura's ver