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NYPD Bee Expert Anthony Planakis To Retire

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Anthony Planakis, an NYPD detective who has become gained local notoriety as the department bee expert, will soon be retiring.

Planakis, affectionately as "Tony Bees," announced via Twitter Thursday that he has filed for retirement.

In a separate tweet, NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III thanked Banks for his "dedicated service" and wished him the best in his retirement.

Planakis has been a beekeeper since the late 1970s, when his late father began taking him from the family home in Queens to the hives he maintained in Connecticut, according to a DNAInfo report.

He has been the go-to guy on bees for the NYPD since 1995, the newspaper reported.

This year alone, Planakis has turned up multiple times in protective gear, loading bees into boxes as they have swarmed in city neighborhoods.

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