Beekeeper jailed after releasing insects on authorities trying to evict her friend

Massachusetts woman jailed for six months after court heard she admitted to freeing bees on sheriff’s deputies

A beekeeper has been jailed for six months after she set swarms of her insects on sheriff’s deputies attempting to carry out an eviction at a friend’s house.

Rebecca Woods insisted she only released her truckload of hives to allow the bees to enjoy the “lovely, flowering landscape” near the home of an elderly friend and cancer patient.

But a district court in Springfield, Massachusetts, heard that Woods, 59, admitted under questioning that she was trying to save him from eviction by freeing the bees in the presence of the deputies who had shown up to serve papers.

Several officers were stung on their heads and faces, and one required hospital treatment, the New York Times reported.