A New York City police detective busted up a rowdy crowd of 8,000 outside a downtown building in Manhattan on Saturday, according to officials.
The revelers were waiting for a club or concert, but rather were part of a rogue swarm of bees that had attached itself to the side of 3 World Trade Center, near the site of the former Twin Towers.
“There was quite the buzz late last night at 3 World Trade Center as 8,000 honeybees swarmed the side of the building. Thankfully, a quick response from @NYPDBees resulted in the safe capture of our flying friends who were relocated without incident to an apple orchard,” police wrote on Twitter in a statement about the removal.
The NYPD has long maintained a group of officers with special knowledge of bees.
An officer from the group was dispatched on Saturday to use a special, non-harmful vacuum to suck the bees off the building. The insects were then relocated to an apple orchard.
The bee unit has developed a small but loyal following in the city. It has its own Twitter account, and sometimes its bee removal calls are live streamed by news outlets
May has been a busy month for the outfit, having responded to multiple calls in Queens involving 15,000 and 20,000 bees, respectively.
At one point, a handsome police beekeeper seen by thousands carefully removing bees from Times Square in Square attracted a passionate female fanbase, prompting detective Robert Travis to tell the New York Post he was single and, “I just got me and my dog.”
Beekeeping is something of a tradition in the NYPD.
“We’ve always had an officer who shares their knowledge of beekeeping with the department,” officer Michael Lauriano told The New Yorker in 2018. “Now that beekeeping has been becoming more of a new thing for New York City—people are having rooftop bees, balcony bees, bees in the parks—we’re faced with the challenges of: what if they swarm off?”
Police, who can get up to two bee calls a week, often find that loose bees are domesticated varieties that have escape from a hobbyist’s beehive, but occasionally find feral bees as well.
