By Saundra Weathers, Reporter, channel 13, St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg Police are searching for a pair of would-be burglars whose break-in attempt was foiled by their intended victims’ beehives.
On Nov. 13, JoAnne Medenhall and her husband Burt woke up to bees everywhere and a damaged fence outside their St. Pete home. When they checked the video from their surveillance cameras, they discovered it was the work of burglars.
The video showed the two would-be intruders trying to scale the fence. One burglar literally falls right into Medenhall’s beehive after his foot kicked the top of the hive.
They also saw his accomplice kicking in the side of the fence and falling into another hive. Both burglars bolted before making it any further.
The Medenhalls couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“First, we called the police and they were absolutely fantastic,” said JoAnne. “The officers that came out, one of them put on the bee suit and went back and took pictures, and then the other officer came out and did finger printing and everything. And then we put on our bee suits and came back out and put the hive back together the way it was supposed to be.”
The Medenhalls use the hives to make honey. They became bee keepers two years ago after their son gave them a beehive as a gift.
JoAnne said the bees are normally harmless unless they’re disturbed at night, which is when the incident happened. She said she’s pretty sure her sweet bees gave their unwanted guests more than they bargained for.
“I hope they got stung a lot and have learned a lesson about trying to break into people’s houses,” said JoAnne. “That there might not be on the other side of the fence what they think there’s going to be.”
Officers stated the need for the burglars to get treatment for their bee stings. They made it clear, however, that arresting the would-be home invaders was their top priority.
