- Bees are not the proper tool to fight an eviction you feel is unjust.
You can have the best of intentions, but the way you go about achieving them can spoil the whole thing. This Massachusetts woman’s case is a prime example of that.
Rebecca Woods has been sentenced to prison for her actions while protesting a friend’s eviction. During the incident, she assaulted several police officers.
Her weapon of choice was a giant swarm of bees.
Woods had arrived at her friend’s house, where the local sheriff’s deputies were attempting to serve eviction papers. During the events, Woods, who is a beekeeper, unloaded multiple boxes of bees from her vehicle and opened the lids.
The police, panicking and attempting to arrest Woods, knocked over additional boxes, releasing hundreds upon hundreds of irate insects. Several police officers were stung, one requiring hospitalization, on top of which thousands of bees perished.
Woods was arrested following the tussle. She was recently sentenced to half a year in prison — a much more lenient sentence than what the sheriff’s office initially sought.
Unfortunately, her bees didn’t manage to stop the eviction.
Evicted Old Man
The bee incident happened already back in 2022. At its heart was a nearly 80-year-old unidentified gentleman living in a $1.9 million mansion in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
This elderly man, who at the time was undergoing treatment for cancer, isn’t directly related to the bees. However, for reasons unknown, he had been evicted from his home.
Deputies from the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office had arrived at the man’s home to serve him the eviction papers. However, he wasn’t home, as he had gone to a local library to file for an emergency stay on the eviction order using a public computer.
While the deputies waited for the man to come back home, Woods arrived at the house. And she wasn’t happy.
She was a friend of the old man who was about to lose his home. And she wasn’t happy.
According to Woods’ lawyer, Mary Saldarelli, she had gone through several evictions herself. She had become an advocate for people who had fallen victim to predatory lending and had come to defend her friend.
”It really was just a sincere hope that he would not suffer the humiliation and devastation of going through an eviction, of losing your home,” Saldarelli told The New York Times.
Hey, at least her heart was in the right place.
‘She’s Opening the Bees!’
The events quickly took a turn for the bizarre, however. Woods is a beekeeper and had arrived in her work vehicle, which contained her protective beekeeping suit — alongside boxes of thousands upon thousands of bees.
As the police refused to leave as she demanded, Woods reportedly donned her beekeeping suit and started unloading boxes from her car. In a court affidavit, she claimed that she had only intended to allow the bees to enjoy the “lovely flowering landscape” while also protesting the eviction.
The sheriff’s deputies, however, weren’t enthusiastic about suddenly having a swarm of bees buzzing around them.
“Hey, hey, hey! She has a truck full of bees,” one deputy yells on a video of the incident.
“She’s opening the bees!” another cautions.
The deputies took the bees as an offensive gesture and moved to arrest Woods. She resisted, and in the ensuing struggle, more bee boxes tipped over.
With that, all hell broke loose.
The agitated bees started stinging everyone in sight, which was mostly the cops. Several deputies suffered multiple stings, including on their faces and heads.
While the bees buzzed around, the deputies wrestled Woods to the ground and slapped handcuffs on her.
“Oh, you’re allergic? Good,” Woods responded as she was informed that some of the deputies were allergic to bees.
According to Saldarelli, her comments were a reaction to being pushed and held to the ground. However, it did little to defuse the situation.
In the end, one deputy required hospitalization due to an allergic reaction. Thousands of bees also died, either being crushed in the boxes or dying after a sting.
Six-month Sentence
Although Woods was arrested immediately following the incident, it took a long while for the ensuing legal case to play out. That was in large part due to Woods’ complete unwillingness to comply with the courts.
Woods missed an early trial date as she appeared to have gone on the lam and disappeared. She was later located at a motel in Tennessee.
However, she refused to return to Massachusetts for the trial. It took more than three months for the cops to get an arrest warrant and for her to be extradited to the Bay State.
Finally, she ended up in court. She was initially charged with seven felonies, but on April 26, a jury acquitted her of all those charges.
Instead, she was only found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of assault and battery and two of reckless assault. Woods was sentenced to six months in county jail, but due to time already served, she will likely be in jail only for a few weeks.
That said, according to Saldarelli, Woods maintains that she is completely innocent and will appeal the sentence.
Meanwhile, according to the Hampden County sheriff’s office, Woods couldn’t stop his friend’s eviction from taking place.
“[She] ultimately failed in her attempt to stop the eviction, which is a matter determined by the courts — not the sheriff’s office,” the HCSD said.