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Mass. woman gets jail after unleashing swarm of bees during an eviction
“Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees,” one deputy can be heard telling another, who responded, “What?”
The sheriff’s deputies were at a $1.9 million mansion in suburban Longmeadow, Massachusetts, in 2022, serving eviction papers.
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Then an SUV with an attached trailer carrying wooden crates pulled into the driveway, according to a video posted by MassLive.
“Hey, hey, hey, she has a truck full of bees,” one deputy can be heard telling another, who responded, “What?”
The driver, Rebecca Woods, a beekeeper, had already gotten out and was lifting the lid off a stack of beehives. She said in a court affidavit that her intent was to let the bees forage on the “lovely flowering landscape,” while also protesting the eviction.
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But in the tussle over the remaining crates, some toppled, releasing hundreds more bees, which stung the deputies and other sheriff’s staff members multiple times, including one who suffered stings to the face and head, and another who was hospitalized.
Woods, who did not live at the home, was convicted by a jury in district court in Springfield, Massachusetts, this month of using the bees as a weapon against the deputies.
She was sentenced to six months in county jail.
Woods, 59, has been the subject of several evictions herself, her lawyer, Mary Saldarelli, said. Woods advocates on behalf of people harmed by predatory lending, loan schemes that let lenders charge borrowers sky-high interest rates.
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Woods said in her affidavit that she was trying to save her friend’s home because he was almost 80 and was undergoing cancer treatment.
While Woods was at the house, trying to delay the eviction, the owner had gone to the public library to use a computer to file an emergency stay of the order.
Amid the confusion of the confrontation, Woods donned a beekeeper suit, according to the video. While she was trying to move more beehives toward the home, two sheriff’s deputies tackled her, forcing her to the ground to arrest her, as bees swarmed the front yard.
When she was told that some deputies were allergic to bees, the sheriff’s office said that Woods responded: “Oh, you’re allergic? Good.”
Jurors acquitted Woods of the seven felonies that she had been charged with and instead found her guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two counts of reckless assault.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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