Bees trap customers in L.A. liquor store

Netscape News ^ | 11/29/2002 | No byline

[Skooz]

Bees trap customers in L.A. liquor store

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marauding bees held shoppers hostage inside a Los Angeles liquor store for two hours on Thanksgiving while engaging firefighters in a tense standoff, officials said Friday.

The bees showed up suddenly at the front door of Sam's Mini Market in the northern Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth at about 11 a.m. Thursday as customers were making last-minute holiday purchases, said store owner Kawaljit Singh.

"A lot of them came in a second," Singh told Reuters. "One customer, he was trying to walk out and he said, 'Look at that!' There was a dark cloud."

The customer slammed the door shut and the siege began.

The bees, which had built a hive under the liquor store sign, trapped Singh, two customers and an employee inside the store for about two hours as firefighters repeatedly doused the insects with firefighting foam.

"All of them got dead but they were still coming from somewhere," Singh said, adding that as one swarm of bees was killed, another wave would appear..

"We would foam some of them and the bees would leave and then come back. It became a question of who can outlast the other?" fire department spokesman Bob Collis said.

The fire crew gave the bees one last soaking and urged customers to make a run for it at around 1 p.m. PST, then left Singh to battle the stragglers, Collis said.

"We assumed they were not the Africanized type because they were not aggressive -- they were just flying around," Collis said.

After mopping up gallons of foam and bees bodies, Singh attacked the hive one last time -- this time with a can of bug spray from his own shelves.

"That worked pretty good," he said. "I hope they don't come back. We don't want them."

© Copyright Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Reuters Ltd.

[Skooz]

Did a search. Didn't see it posted. Not really Killer Bees. More like Thug Bees.

[Willie Green]

For some reason, it never occured to me that people go to liquor stores on Thanksgiving morning.
Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.
It just doesn't seem much like a traditional Thanksgiving activity.

[Nachum]

I am surprised they did not call a bee keeping service to capture them. The bees, if they are domestic are quite valuable.

We had a similar problem a couple of years ago. A bee keeper came out with his white helmeted suit and sprayed the bees down with sugar water. (said it got the bees drunk)

It took him about ten minutes to find the huge hive. The bees had taken over an entire insulated wall of our neigbor's garage. He sprayed more sugary water on them all, then proceded to cut out the hive an moved it along with all the honey to his truck.

He said in the end, there were more than 50,000 bees in the hive. He was going to sell all the bees to farmers for polination of their crops. The guy got paid three times. Paid to remove the bees, paid to sell the honey, and paid by the farmers for use in their farming.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Maybe it's the only way some people can put up with their in-laws for long periods of time...????

[Dog]

"All of them got dead but they were still coming from somewhere," Singh said, adding that as one swarm of bees was killed, another wave would appear..

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Beekeeping is a fun job... nothing like feeling thoussands of bees crawling over every inch of your body... it's a real trip... :0)

[SandfleaCSC]

Now I know where Barenjaeger liqour comes from.

[Vidalia]

And you have never heard of the " TURDUCKEN"?

Just wanna be your good friend, Mr. Green...

[Nachum]

LOL. This bee keeper was one of these PETA types who loved "all living creatures". Said that he loved his job. ( and had a real THICK protective suit )

[Joe Hadenuf]

For some reason, it never occured to me that people go to liquor stores on Thanksgiving morning. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. It just doesn't seem much like a traditional Thanksgiving activity.

I think we should pass a law, all mini marts and greedy marts to be closed on Thanksgiving. This should put a stop to this non traditional activity.

[SandfleaCSC]

All your liquor are belong to us.

[mombonn]

Getting buzzed at a liquor store - what a concept!

[Chad Fairbanks]

What a wuss... all my uncle ever gave me was a hat with a net, and some gloves... the rest was standard "battle dress" (i.e. everything buttoned up, socks up around pantlegs etc...)...

The only part of the job I hated was having to watch for snakes under the pallets of hives...

[gcruse]

"It just doesn't seem much like a traditional Thanksgiving activity."

Well, there isn't a whole lot to do after you
open your presents.

[Nachum]

Wuss? Well, we do live near Hollywood! Maybe he was in costume. lol

[Chad Fairbanks]

Or, it could be that they were all freepers, depressed by all the news of lay-offs that you keep posting ;0)

[SandfleaCSC]

Yes, I agree. But that would just pave the way for "bootleggers" to sell cranberry sauce and stuffing to the criminals who run out on Thanksgiving. And that would lead to Mexicans smuggling tons of the stuff on the interstate. Then we would have Dane or Kevin Curry help round up the offenders so they could be shot, hung, drawn, and quartered.

[NewsFlash]

...held shoppers hostage inside a Los Angeles liquor store for two hours on Thanksgiving...

There wasn't a back door or fire exit they could have exited from? Imagine the husband trying to explain to the wife why he was 2 hours late and the turkey dinner was held up and overdone. Honey really! I was held hostage at the liquor store by a swarm of maurading bees!! LOL!