Bees cause a scene on Wall Street

Published 7:11 pm Tuesday, June 1, 2010

In New York, even the bees are trying to make it on Wall Street.

About 15,000 of them buzzed the posh Cipriani Wall Street restaurant this week, blanketing an elegant front door and forcing police to cordon off the block.

“We had 15,000 girls who wanted to get in and have a nice, fresh Bellini on a hot, sunny day,” general manager Eric Bonnetain said Tuesday.

At noon Monday, with the markets closed for Memorial Day and tourists filling Wall Street, Bonnetain was outside when he suddenly saw “thousands of bees flying around.” Pedestrians stopped in wonder; some ran in fear.

Soon, the female worker bees landed at Cipriani.

Police summoned officer Anthony Planakis, their bee handler. Wearing a white jacket and gloves, he used a vacuum to suck up the bees into a container.

Associated Press