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Stolen truck filled with bees recovered following 7 Action News report

Posted at 5:12 PM, Sep 14, 2016
and last updated 2016-09-14 17:12:17-04

7 Action News reported Tuesday about a stolen truck filled with honey and bees.

After our report aired, viewers found some of the boxes of honey on the side of the road, while police recovered the truck.

"I'm happy to have it back. I wish it was in better condition than it is, but I'm glad to have it back," the owner of the truck, Tom Jenkins, said.

His stolen truck was found in Highland Park. It is damaged and can't be driven.

Inside, he found 10 out of the 25 boxes of honey and the condition was less than great.

"They were just all out of the boxes and laying everywhere, so it's probably all busted up," Jenkins says.

Tom's truck was stolen from his driveway. The person who took it may not have realized what was inside.

"Honey is leaking out of the back of the truck, so it was bounced around pretty good," he says. "I don't know if it's salvageable."

He had about $7,000 worth of honey in his truck with about 1,000 bees.

Good Samaritans randomly found nine boxes of honey on the side of the roadie Highland Park. They contacted someone from the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Association, who happened to watch our report.

"They went out of their way to pick things up and ,by the time they got to it, every bee in the city of Highland Park was flying around trying to rob the honey to take back to their hives and so they braved the bees to put the stuff back together and save it for me," Jenkins says.

In the back Tom found this bike, which appears to have been stolen, with a chain broken and the padlock still on.

He has to leave the truck in a Detroit tow yard for now, but he retrieved the honey.