Policeman trapped - by angry bees

19 August 2010

A police officer was trapped in his patrol car for three hours - by 50,000 angry honeybees.

Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Jenkins, 31, had been called out after a lorry broke down near Raleigh, North Carolina.

The lorry was pulling a trailer loaded with 60 boxes of bees and the insects had escaped, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Deputy Jenkins arrived at day break just as the bees were waking up and they swarmed him, forcing him to retreat to his car and radio for back up.

"It was mind boggling how many bees were out there. At some point, it was hard to see out of the windows," he said.

The officer admitted using deadly force on some of the insects who got in.

"It was more or less self-defence. There were a couple of bees in my personal space, my comfort zone, and I just wanted to get them out."

Police called in two beekeepers who used smoke and sugar water spray to calm the insects and then collected them. They said the bees had been attracted by the light colour of the patrol car.

Beekeeper Charles Heatherly said: "The bees were hot and bothered. They got a little testy."

Jennifer Keller, a honeybee technician at North Carolina State University, said: "They were just very confused. They don't have a queen to guard and they were kind of lost."

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Policeman_trapped_by_angry_bees