NYPD 'Bee Brigade' Ready For Sting Operations In NYC
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Daniel Higgins is one cop who knows a thing or two about sting operations.
While the New York Police Department detective's main job is working in a counterterrorism unit, he is also one of two department beekeepers who dons protective gear and heads to the scene when buzzing swarms of the insects glom onto buildings, streetlights or other pieces of the urban landscape.
The NYPD bee brigade gets sent on dozens of calls each spring and summer, typically known as "swarm season."
Recent calls included some where officers used vacuums to remove grotesque masses of tens of thousands of bees from a lamp post near Grand Central Terminal, the awning of a restaurant and even a chained bicycle near Times Square.
In June, video captured as many as 20,000 bees making their home inside the wall of a fourth floor apartment in Cobble Hill. The bees to entered through the exposed brick, after an air conditioning unit was removed from the plaster wall.
Higgens says the removed bees are donated to local beekeepers.
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