As Cops Carried Out Eviction, She Broke Out the Bees

A Massachusetts woman who was set to go to trial for allegedly unleashing a swarm of bees upon sheriff's deputies trying to carry out an eviction has been arrested in Tennessee after ditching that trial. MassLive.com reports that Rebecca "Rorie" Woods, in her late 50s and hailing from Hadley, was taken into custody on Thursday evening at a hotel in the Volunteer State, two days after missing her trial back home in Springfield District Court, according to the Hampden County Sheriff's Department.

The court proceedings were set to revolve around the October 2022 incident in which Woods is accused of showing up at a Longmeadow home for an eviction protest, lugging a trailer behind her vehicle filled with beehives. Woods, who's said to have donned a beekeeper suit herself, is accused of flipping the hives off of the flatbed, making the bees "aggressive" and causing them to sting several sheriff's deputies, some of whom were allergic to bee stings, per the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

One sheriff's office worker was treated at a nearby hospital and released. "She may have delayed justice, but it won't be denied," the office of the Hampden DA said in a statement this week announcing an arrest warrant issued after Woods didn't show for her trial, per WWLP. She's expected to be extradited back to Massachusetts, where she'll face charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the bees), assault, and disorderly conduct.