Bees swarm New York City GameStop

The bees emerged from a large hive located in a building between 4th Ave and Irving Place. The store in Manhattan had a hive running up the inside of its walls that was home to thousands of bees.

Though no concrete details are available, it is apparent that something stirred the bees and they swarmed outside the ‘GameSpot’ store.

Quite a spectacle
The spectacle drew quite a crowd. "When I got here, there was already like a thousand bees in there. Then they came out. They were like, in a pack," said bee watcher Jay Lorenzo.

Bee watcher Herman Leath said of the spectacle, "It's just something I've never seen before...this is Manhattan, New York, I guess you could see anything."

The employees who were trapped inside displayed a sign that read "temporarily closed due to bee infestation”.

"Everybody outside was standing really still," said a GameStop employee, who called 911 for help.

A passer by springs into action
Edward Albers, a courageous amateur beekeeper came to the rescue. Initially, he took photographs of the bees, hoping to scare them off with the flash. When that did not work, he proceeded with a plastic bag and cardboard box from a nearby UPS store and began collecting the bees before the arrival of professional beekeepers at the site.

Albers wasn't afraid to take the risk. He told the Post, "I've seen people handle bees before and if they're calm, the bees won't sting.

“I decided that, with all the strollers and babies around, it could have been a bad afternoon. It was such a nice holiday. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of people getting stung."

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) cordoned off the area, and a professional bee specialist arrived at the scene at around 4 p.m. However, removing the hive was not an easy task.

"I'm probably going to be relying on scent, the queen bee's scent. It could take a half hour, an hour, two hours -- I don't know," NYPD bee expert Tony Planakis said.

Fortunately, no one was stung by the bees before they were removed.