Animal control officers in Arlington say a little bit of luck helped them in a sting on Monday, when they were asked to remove a bee hive with 40,000 bees from a neighborhood.
In Ray Rentschler's line of work, there is no shortage of surprises.
"That's one of the reasons I love what I do," said Rentschler, who is the field operations administrator for Arlington Animal Services. "I never know what I'm going to walk into."
That turned out to be the case Monday evening.
"It was not a typical evening at all," said Rentschler. "We received a call that the fire department had a hive of bees sitting in the middle of the street."
A lawn care crew had been doing work at home near the intersection of Jewell Drive and Lester Drive in West Arlington, and when they pulled a silver container out of the yard, they discovered a massive bee hive inside of it. They dropped the container and called first responders.
By the time Rentschler arrived on scene, firefighters had completely blocked off the area.
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"It was definitely a unique call," said Rentschler.
Rentschler had only dealt with bees one other time in his career, but as luck would have it, Alfred Wood, who lives just up the street from where the hive was dropped, was once a beekeeper.
"He got his bee suit on as well and helped me with the smoker since it was the second time I'd ever done it," said Rentschler. "He gave me a great education."
They used smoke to calm the bees, then put the hive into a large container and loaded it into Rentschler's truck. They estimate there were about 40,000 bees in the hive.
"[If he wasn't there] I probably would have got stung a couple times," said Rentschler. "It was really good that he was there."
Rentschler released the bees in a remote area at Village Creek Park. He said this is one of those calls he won't soon forget.
"If I ever write a book, it will be one of the first stories," said Rentschler.
Wood was not at home when NBC 5 stopped by the neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.
