If you didn’t know already, bees are absolutely vital to our ecosystem. There are innumerable campaigns out there fighting to save the bees in order to maintain a healthy living environment for humans beings, plants, and animals.
Even though a great many people live in fear of these tiny insects because of their painful stingers, they serve such an important role on earth, pollinating at least 30% of the world’s crops, so their protection remains highly important (1). That’s why the horrific vandalism of an enormous bee colony in Sioux Falls, Iowa, was especially devastating, leading the two boys who caused the damage to face steep charges (2).
The Tragic Vandalism Incident
The owners of Wild Hill Honey went out to tend to their hives and clear off snow on December 28th, only to find that 50 of their beehives had been utterly destroyed (1). This tragic event resulted in the death of well over 500,000 bees (2). Bee carcasses lay dead in the snow, their sheds completely trashed by vandals, and even though the beehive business owner, Justin Engelhardt, had installed a security camera, it proved to be practically worthless (1). The vandals had stolen the camera in addition to devastating the bee colony (1).
Engelhardt claimed that the destruction caused $60,000 in damages, which was, in his opinion, a “completely senseless” act (3). Engelhardt told the local newspaper that “They knocked over every single hive, killing all the bees. They wiped us out completely” (4). Engelhardt explained that “They broke into our shed, they took all our equipment out and threw it out in the snow, smashed what they could. Doesn’t look like anything was stolen, everything was just vandalized or destroyed” (3).
Who Was Responsible?
The Wild Hill Honey owners understandably got the police involved. Police authorities utilized fingerprint readers in order to quickly track down the criminals, coming to the shocking conclusion that all of the damage had been brutally completed by two young boys, ages 12 and 13 (2). The boys are now facing punishment of up to 10 years in prison due to the $60,000 worth of damages they caused (1).
They have been charged with criminal mischief in the first degree, agricultural animal facilities offenses, and burglary in the third degree (3). Additionally, they have been charged with aggravated misdemeanors for possession of burglar’s tools and could be fined up to $10,000 (3).
Surprising Support For The Cause
Since insurance companies do not cover beehives in the United States, the Wild Hill Honey owners were expecting to have lost everything they had until their situation caught national attention and a fundraising page was organized (3). So far, they have been able to raise over $30,000 that would help restart the business (3).
According to Engelhardt, the support “was amazing and we are deeply grateful for all of the contributions from the people of Sioux City and people around the country. It is thanks to those contributions that we’ll be able to rebuild in the spring. We’ve already made arrangements to get some hives down south and we’ll bring them up in the spring and we’ll be right back to where we were” (3).
