On Tuesday, February 6th, 54-year-old Yoel Torres was apprehended for breaking into the American Bee Project located in Hialeah, Florida, for stealing bee hives and letting bees escape.
Yoel was spotted on surveillance camera breaking into the beekeeping facility on multiple occasions dating back to last month. The surveillance footage shows Yoel parking his truck outside of the American Bee Project near Northwest 170th Street and Northwest 97th Avenue. The suspect climbed over a barbed wire fence, put on a bee suit before he removed the hives and place them on the bed of his truck.
Yoel was also spotted removing the tops off of the hives, purposely letting out the bees causing $3,500 in losses for the company. Fortunately, the surveillance footage captured Yoel's license plate, which aided in the apprehension of the bee thief.
Yoel told investigators that he believed the bee hives to be 'abandoned', he claimed that he did not steal the bees as he was given permission by a woman who he had spoken to on the phone, she said he could take them.
Yoel Torres was charged with four counts of grand theft, six counts of trespassing and one count of criminal mischief. He was later released from Miami Dade Corrections after posting his $12,500 bond.