On December 28th, Justin and Tori Engelhardt, owners of the Wild Hill Honey, have discovered their 50 hives trashed. Guilty of such a vandalism were two boys, aged 12 and 13, who have been arrested for killing honeybees soon after the complaint was placed.
Half a million honeybees have died and damages of $60,000 in value have been registered.
Boys actions led to the death of half a million honeybees which, without the protection of their hives, have frozen to death in the blizzard of Sioux City, Iowa. The boys destroyed the hives one by one and also trashed the equipment, according to Justin Engelhardt. He also said that nothing was stolen and that the kids just destroyed everything for no reason.
Engelhardt estimated the damages in a value of $60,000 which could’ve meant the end of his honey business.
A GoFundMe.com page was established to support Justin and Tori.
A friend of the couple has created a GoFundMe page to ask for community support to cover Engelhardt’s loss. The page has already raised $30,000 meaning that the family’s honey business can be reinitiated later this year.
The boys have been arrested and waiting for their sentence.
The two minors have been arrested and charged with vandalism, criminal mischief, and burglary in the third degree. For such accusations, they can spend their next 10 years in prison if found guilty plus that they would have to pay $10,000. However, we’re talking about minors here, therefore the juvenile court might impose milder penalties.
On the other hand, the boys’ behavior was not at all normal and shocked the community.
The boys’ actions affected the bees species, too.
Scientists are already thinking that bees are on the edge of a crisis that might end up in extinction, so the boys’ vandalism act is much more serious than you may initially think.
As the bees may extinct, the food industry based on bees will also be in a huge crisis. And we’re talking here about an industry of billions of dollars. Moreover, the extinction of the bees will be affecting the crops and the plants.
Justin Engelhardt even thinks that people who are aware of the bees’ crisis got involved in the fundraising on his GoFundMe page and helped him recover the losses.
