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This Guy Seems Pretty Chill for Being Trapped in a Car with Thousands of Bees

Wally Leatherwood is a legend.
Drew Schwartz
Brooklyn, US
screenshot via youtube.

On Tuesday, a North Carolina beekeeper picked up about 18,000 bees from a local farm, stuck them in the back of his truck, and started driving home. About halfway to his place in Waynesville, Wally Leatherwood got hungry, stopped off at a BBQ place for lunch, and stuck his bees in the cab while he ate, so that the AC would keep them cool, WREG reports.

When he walked back to his car, he found that a box full of bees had escaped. Thousands of the little bastards had commandeered the inside of his truck, covering the passenger seat, piling up in the windowsills, and zipping around the cab like they owned the place. Left with no other choice, Leatherwood just braced himself, stuck a smile on his face, and crawled back in there with them—and thus, this gem of a video was born.

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There are a lot of remarkable things happening here—the settled calm in Wally Leatherwood's face, the fact that he's not only smiling, somehow, he's actually laughing audibly. But what is unquestionably the video's strongest quality is the commentary from his Southern-ass buddies, who seem to take no pity on him whatsoever.

"Video that 'n put that on Facebook," a man says, before letting Leatherwood have it. "This fool has got bees in his damn truck turned loose!"

After a pause, ostensibly to let the audience process and savor this moment, he weighs in once more.

"Wally, you're a damn fool!"

To that I say: No, Wally, you are not a damn fool. You are a man dedicated to his bees, a man so at home with the creatures that in the face of literally thousands of stingers poised all around you, ready to inflict hell upon your supple flesh, you just laugh your ass off and drive home, because you know that bees are not to be wasted. You are no fool, Wally Leatherwood. You are a legend.

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