Beekeeper Stung, but Case of Hives Is Quickly Solved

Sheriff’s deputies today searched for a Riverside County trucker who allegedly drove off with more than 100,000 bees taken from a truck stop in Castaic, the Sheriff’s Department said.

“For a beekeeper, this is the same as rustling cattle,” said Pam Goldstein, wife of beekeeper Jerry Goldstein, whose bees were missing after employee Jerry Zeidler allegedly drove off with a flatbed truck holding 57 bee colonies valued at $3,000.

The bees, part of a two-truck shipment bound for a pollination project in Northern California, were found safe this morning near their owner’s warehouse in rural Riverside County, Pam Goldstein said. She said Zeidler was “lucky he returned them last night--in the mornings they start to swarm.”