It sounds like something straight from the set of one of Hollywood’s latest movies, but the dramatic scene that unfolded Monday live on TV was anything but fake.
Fire crews and police responded to a neighborhood in Encino, California around 4:15 p.m. Monday to assist with a bee sting. When they arrived they discovered a massive swarm of bees.
Fox 11’s SkyFox was over the scene as officials attempted to get the situation under control. What they captured has been described as “gut-wrenching.”
Their camera caught a uniformed LAPD volunteer directing traffic in the area when all of a sudden bees began to swarm around him. The volunteer, identified as Gary by his family, swatted at the bees before falling face-first onto the road.
Gary’s son Daniel happened to be watching the frightening event live on TV.
“It was gut-wrenching,” he told KTLA. “I couldn’t even believe it. It looked so painful. It’s easy to criticize after the fact, but at the time, I’m sure everyone was doing the best they can or was not sure what to do, but it was just horrible. I was yelling at the screen going, ‘Why aren’t people helping? This is ridiculous. Go out, please help.’”
Gary was transported to the hospital where he has been receiving treatment for 50-100 bee stings. He’s expected to remain in the hospital for several more days as he continues to recover.
“He’s got a triple fracture above his eyebrow, on the nose region, I think that’s where a lot of the blood came from and just under his eye socket as well.”
Daniel said that while his father, an Air Force veteran, has received a lot of praise over the past 18 years for his volunteer work with the LAPD, he’s hoping the community can help him out as he’ll soon be faced with a large hospital bill.
“Unfortunately, while his job gets a lot of praise, we recently found out he’ll be on the hook for his own medical expenses through Medicare, since volunteers are not considered city employees,” according to a GoFundMe raising funds for Gary’s medical bills.
“Further, he’s had to indemnify the LAPD and the city against any injuries he gets ‘on duty’ and even pay for his own uniform and gear necessary to carry out those duties. It’s looking like we, his family, will need to go to bat for him here, as he’s going to be in the hospital for several more days to be stabilized enough for facial surgery.”
“This is not a normal behavior for these bees to be this angry, to want to kill you,” Izak Kharrazi of All Valley Honey & Bee, a bee removal company, told CBS News.
The bees were eventually removed, but not before sending two people to the hospital.
How scary! Hopefully both victims are okay.
READ MORE:
- Mother credited with saving officer’s life with EpiPen after he’s stung by two bees at community event
- After Queen Elizabeth’s death, the royal beekeeper broke the news to her bees
