There are a lot of ways to protest an eviction.
Releasing a truckload of bees into the front yard while sheriff’s deputies are trying to serve papers is… not the usual one.
A Massachusetts beekeeper has been sentenced to six months in jail after unleashing swarms of her insects during an eviction attempt at the home of an elderly friend undergoing cancer treatment. The incident, which sounds like something pulled from a particularly chaotic movie scene, left multiple deputies stung and at least one hospitalized.
A Hive Full of Intentions
Rebecca Woods, 59, told the court she had brought the bees to the property simply so they could enjoy the area’s “lovely, flowering landscape.”
But under questioning, she acknowledged a more immediate goal: stopping the eviction.
According to testimony, Woods drove up to the Longmeadow home with hives stacked on a trailer, stepped out in a beekeeper’s suit, and began opening them as deputies arrived. Within moments, the front yard turned into a swirling cloud of bees.
Video from the scene captures deputies shouting, “Hey!” and “She’s opening the bees!” as one officer is seen waving his arms, trying to fend off the insects.
Chaos in the Front Yard
What followed was as chaotic as it sounds.
Several deputies were stung on their heads and faces, and one required hospital treatment. During the scuffle that followed, Woods was taken to the ground and arrested while bees continued to swarm around the property.
At one point, authorities said she was told some deputies were allergic. Her reported response: “Oh, you’re allergic? Good!”
Her attorney later said the comment came in the heat of the moment, calling it “a reaction to having your face put down in the pavement.”
The encounter also came at a cost to the bees themselves. Roughly 1,000 bees died—some crushed when hives were knocked over, others because honeybees die after stinging.
“Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Experienced”
Local officials didn’t mince words about the situation.
“This was unlike anything our team has ever experienced,” said Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi, whose office released video of the incident.
Woods’ attorney, meanwhile, framed the event differently—less as an attack, more as a desperate attempt to help someone she believed was being treated unfairly.
Her client, she said, had experienced evictions herself and wanted to protect her friend, an 80-year-old cancer patient, from losing his home.
“It really was just a sincere hope that he would not suffer the humiliation and devastation of going through an eviction,” she said.
A Plan That Didn’t Work
In the end, the strategy didn’t stop the eviction.
A jury acquitted Woods of several felony charges but found her guilty on multiple misdemeanor counts of assault and reckless behavior. She has already spent months in custody and is expected to serve a short additional stretch.
Her lawyer says she plans to appeal and is “not acquiescing in any way, shape or form.”
As for the homeowner Woods was trying to protect, he ultimately lost the property.
Sheriff Cocchi acknowledged the difficult circumstances but emphasized that situations like this are handled through the courts—not through swarms of bees.
“We don’t just show up to enforce an order. We try to help people through difficult situations,” he said. “That commitment doesn’t change, even in the face of something like this.”
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