Workers at Shropshire youth arts charity The Hive were left in a flap when the intruder alarm was set off – by a bee.
Staff were called to the town centre premises, on Belmont, Shrewsbury, when the alarm went off and after investigations with the call-out engineer from Security Wise, the issue was isolated to a single bumble bee which was trapped in the alarm sensor of the garden studio.
The constant buzzing of the bee within the individual sensor had triggered the entire system.
The bee was caught in a heart-shaped tin which was immediately to hand and then released back into the great outdoors after its antics were over on Friday night. Habib Malik-Mansell, a spokesman for the Hive, said the arts charity had certainly lived up to its name last weekend but that it was now back to business as usual.
“It certainly is rather ironic and amusing that a bee coming into the Hive was found to be the cause of our alarm sounding last week,” he said.
“However, we’re definitely pleased that it wasn’t anything more serious or a genuine intruder. There were some colourful reels of cotton in the room and we think the bee may have believed that they were perhaps some form of Hive or home – as they have that appearance.”
The garden studio at the Hive, where the bee was located, is the new pop-up home of local fashion designer Jo Bloodworth, along with young photographer Ella Ruth Cowperthwaite. They will be based at the centre over the summer months, using the venue as a creative base.
