Officials: Massachusetts woman uses bees to attack deputies during eviction
A routine eviction turned into a sting operation
By Glenn Kittle, Photojournalist: Jeremy Fair and Ryan Trowbridge
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LONGMEADOW, Massachusetts (WGGB, WSHM-LD) — A routine eviction turned into a sting operation, literally. It all played out in Longmeadow as a woman allegedly unleashed a swarm of bees on Hampden County Sheriff’s Department deputies attempting to serve eviction papers.
In photos provided by the sheriff’s department, you can see 55-year-old Rorie Sussan Woods donning a beekeeper’s outfit as she protested the eviction of a Longmeadow man from his Memery Lane home last week. She arrived hauling boxes full of bees, which she allegedly tried to release the bees outside the house, but the sheriff’s department stepped in quickly to try and close the lids.
Hampden County Chief Deputy Sheriff Robert Hoffman told Western Mass News this act of violence was unexpected.
“I’ve been doing this for 17 years. I try my best to size up the different situations we walk into each day…It was Ms. Woods’s arrival with her vehicle and trailer that caused things to go haywire, if you will,” Hoffman explained.
We’re told that in the scuffle, the boxes fell over and released bees on several sheriff’s deputies and bystanders. Woods then put on a beekeeper’s outfit and brought another box of bees to the front door and started to agitate the bees in an attempt to stop the eviction.
Woods was then arrested and is facing a long list of charges including four counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Hoffman added that the sheriff’s department has always tried to deal with these incidents as professionally as possible and cases of violence typically don’t occur during most evictions.
“I would say the occasions of violence are rather rare. We like to chalk that up as due to our outreach and the relationship that we try to build with people who are on the cusp of being evicted,” Hoffman said.
One deputy did go to the hospital after he experienced an increased heart rate, but he was released later that day.
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