Disturbing cell phone video shows an elderly woman getting stung by hundreds, and perhaps over a thousand bees, outside her home in Murrieta on Wednesday.
The situation unfolded around 2 p.m. in the 23000 block of Spring Branch Court.
“She staggered to where her car is, and then she fell to the ground,” a neighbor, who only wanted to be identified as Chuck, told KTLA on Thursday. “The bees were relentless. They were attacking her. They were attacking everyone that was in the neighborhood.”
Chuck says he had just arrived home when another neighbor yelled to tell him that the victim, Linda, was being swarmed.
“She was fully covered from the waist up,” Chuck said.
The other neighbor tried to intervene but with no luck.
“I ran over there, and I tried to help her … tried to spray her with a hose, but they started attacking me,” the woman who recorded the video told us. “So I ran into the neighbor’s garage and then I ran back out to get my phone, and that’s when I called 911.”
Murrieta Fire and Rescue crews arrived and were also attacked by the bees.
Ultimately, Linda and a firefighter were taken to a hospital for treatment while fire crews doused the home and other areas with foam.
Chris Maas with Bee Removal Pros was also summoned. He believes the bees came from two or three colonies with separate queens.
“If I was to estimate, I’d say there were 100,000 bees,” Maas told us.
Linda later checked herself out of the hospital and returned to her home where neighbors say the bees have been a constant source of trouble.
Experts say Southern California’s bee population has exploded after the region’s historic wet winter.