A New York man corralled hundreds of menacing bees into a plastic bag as they swarmed in front of store near the city's Union Square Park, witnesses said.

Edward Albers, 54, got a bag and cardboard box from a nearby UPS store Saturday and began collecting the bees before professional beekeepers could arrive at the site, The New York Post reported.

A worker at the GameStop store at lower Manhattan's 14th Street and Fourth Avenue who had called police about the menacing bees said passersby were worried by the swarm, telling the newspaper, "Everybody outside was standing really still."

Albers, however, wasn't afraid to take action. He told the Post: "I decided that, with all the strollers and babies around, it could have been a bad afternoon. It was such a nice holiday. The last thing I wanted was a bunch of people getting stung."