Bungling would-be burglar chased away by up to 80,000 angry bees after leaping over fences and landing on hives

Isobel Frodsham12 March 2019
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A would-be burglar was chased away by up to 80,000 angry bees after leaping over a fence and crashlanding on hives, their keeper said today.

Award-winning beekeeper Dale Gibson told how the unfortunate thief scaled the fence around the compound in Potters Fields Park, near Tower Bridge, in an apparent bid to pinch tools and machinery.

But the boxes, each housing 20,000 insects cared for by Bermondsey Street Bees, were knocked over — smashing one and knocking the roof off another — prompting what Mr Gibson, 61, described as a “defensive response”.

He said: “Although they can’t see in the dark, bees can find enough reason to go three feet and drive off attackers. That’s how they would have viewed the incursion by our would-be burglar.

“It meant that nothing was stolen, no locks were tried, and presumably the person who jumped down was pretty inclined to jump up again … but not without having an up-close moment with agitated bees who really meted out their own form of insect justice.”

Mr Gibson — who has hosted Michelin-starred chefs such as Raymond Blanc and Daniel Clifford at his Bermondsey Street Bees office — said that the alarm was raised by a member of the public who noticed the hives were “disturbed”.

“Hives don’t just fall over, they get knocked over. Immediately my thoughts were this was an extraordinary action due to external influences,” he said. “The hives were able to be put back together and we didn’t lose any honey stock, but we did have some casualties. I think the bees would have given as good as they got.”

The businessman, who also manages beehives at Soho Farmhouse where supermodels Suki Waterhouse and Georgia May Jagger have stayed, added that he felt “exasperated” by what had happened. “The sheer opportunistic stupidity of jumping on an 8ft roof and then jumping down to try to gain some form of economic advantage is beyond reckless,” he said.

“Bees only sting if they feel under attack and a hive acts as a single unit, so an individual bee will sacrifice itself for the hive.”

Mr Gibson and his wife Sarah Wyndham Lewis launched Bermondsey Street Bees in 2007.

He said neither he nor Potters Fields Trust, a not-for-profit organisation that manages the park, have reported the incident on February 25.

He said he believed “natural justice has been served”.

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