By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
FINANCIAL DISTRICT — When a swarm of 15,000 bees descends on Wall Street, who you gonna call?
The Bee Man, of course.
NYPD Officer Anthony Planakis, aka "Bee Man," got the call Monday morning that a mass of bees had taken over one of the entrances to the swank Cipriani restaurant at 55 Wall St.
Hundreds of bees stuck in clumps to the metal door and hundreds more filled the air nearby. The NYPD cordoned off a section of Wall Street between William and Hanover streets as a crowd of tourists, residents and reporters pressed in to get a closer look.
Wearing protective gear and wielding a low-pressure vacuum, Planakis sucked up most of the bees within half an hour. A 30-year veteran of the NYPD’s building maintenance unit and the department’s resident bee expert, Planakis moved the vacuum hose methodically across the door until just a couple dozen bees remained hovering in the air. He did not get stung, though his face was exposed.
Planakis said the bees were following the lead of their queen, who was likely fleeing an overcrowded hive nearby to look for a new home. Swarms among bee colonies are common in springtime, but Planakis said this was the first one he had ever seen on Wall Street.
The bees will find a new home in the more spacious terrain of Connecticut, Planakis said. The capture should not harm them, though Planakis worried they could be getting hot in their screened pen Monday afternoon and wanted to move them into his air-conditioned car.
Andrew Cote, a leader of the New York City Beekeepers Association, said swarms may look intimidating but the bees are docile because they have no hive to defend.
"A new kitten is more of a danger, with its claws and teeth, than a swarm of bees," Cote told DNAinfo. "They're simply looking for a place to live."
New Yorkers responded with disbelief and excitement to the spectacle of a bee swarm in the Financial District.
“It’s strange to see this, especially down here,” said Jean-Pierre Roche, 44, a doorman at 37 Wall St. “Cipriani — holy moley, they picked the right spot.”
David Katz, 54, a Park Slope resident, called the swarm “one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen.
“It’s like one of those films where the animals turn against mankind,” he said.
Cipriani did not immediately return calls for comment.
