Drone packed with crab-boil fixin’s — even jar of Old Bay! — intercepted before drop-off over jail
A drone was sent over a South Carolina prison, delivering a makeshift crab‑boil feast that even had a jar of “Old Bay Seasoning” for a surprise holiday treat for some inmates.
The flight was intercepted by guards at the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville. They stopped the aircraft before it could drop its cargo, which turned out to be more than just a meal. In addition to steak and king crab legs, the drone carried two large bags of marijuana and a couple of cartons of cigarettes.
“We’re guessing the inmates were a bit crabby after that,” joked Chrysti Shain, the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ communications director, to The Post on Tuesday.
The package was confiscated just before it hit the yard, and authorities are now looking for both the operator who piloted the drone and the inmates who were supposed to receive it. They also missed out on a stack of Marlboro Menthol and Lucky Strike cigarettes that were part of the delivery.
According to Shain, the contraband was bought at a Piggly Wiggly supermarket in Georgetown, roughly 80 miles from the facility, based on the drone’s flight logs.
Although this particular smuggling attempt had a comical twist, Shain warned that drones remain a serious issue for prisons in the state. The corrections department spends millions each year battling airborne deliveries of everything from cell phones to methamphetamine and fentanyl.
“We fight nightly battles with drones,” she said. “Some models can carry up to 30 pounds of cargo, and it’s only a matter of time before the technology advances enough for a drone to pick someone up and fly them away.”
Pilots often disguise their packages by covering them with faux turf or litter to make them look like ordinary debris. In response, the prison has a dedicated drone‑detection team tasked with spotting and thwarting these aerial smuggling attempts. While Shain admitted that this specific parcel of surf‑and‑turf items was “unusual, even for us,” the problem continues to grow more complex.
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