BISHOPVILLE, S.C. — A Christmas feast dropped by a drone into the yard of a South Carolina prison was apparently intended for inmates -- but a guard played Scrooge and got to the contraband first, authorities said.
According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, items dropped into the Lee Correctional Institution included steak, crab legs, Old Bay seasoning, cigarettes and marijuana. The drone was seizedpackaging on Sunday morning.
Instead of visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads, some inmates had to be content with prison food -- business as usual.
“Seems some folks were planning an early holiday Old Bay crab boil and steak dinner along with their marijuana and cigarettes,” corrections officials posted on X. “All dropped by a drone at Lee CI.”
A photograph from the Bishopville prison showed a raw steak still in its grocery store packaging, crab legs and Old Bay with side plastic baggies of marijuana and a couple of cartons of cigarettes.
No arrests have been made. Prison officials said an investigation is ongoing.
“I’m guessing the inmates who were expecting the package are crabby,” prisons spokesperson Chrysti Shain said.
It was unclear who was operating the drone or who the intended recipients of the holiday feast were.
Flying a drone near a prison in South Carolina is a misdemeanor that can bring up to 30 days in jail. Dropping contraband into a facility is a felony and is punishable by a prison term of up to 10 years.
According to the Department of Corrections, Lee Correctional is a men’s-only, split-custody prison that houses inmates in high- and medium-security” facilities.
It was the site of a violent incident in 2018, when seven inmates were killed and 17 others were injured.
Bishopville is located about 50 miles east of Columbia.