Drone drops steak and crab legs for prisoner feast but South Carolina guards find it first

Advertisement

Advertise with us

BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (AP) — ’Twas three weeks before Christmas, and in the prison yard, a drone-dropped package was found by a guard.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/12/2025 (262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (AP) — ’Twas three weeks before Christmas, and in the prison yard, a drone-dropped package was found by a guard.

With steak, weed and crab legs, and cigarettes for days. And to season it all, a tin of Old Bay.

The illicit meal was dropped into the Lee Correctional Institution prison yard by a drone, the South Carolina Department of Corrections said on the social platform X with the hashtag #ContrabandChristmas.

In this undated photo released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections, items dropped by a drone into the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C., are seen. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
In this undated photo released by the South Carolina Department of Corrections, items dropped by a drone into the Lee Correctional Institution in Bishopville, S.C., are seen. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

A photo from the Bishopville prison showed a raw steak still in the grocery store packing, crab legs and Old Bay with side plastic baggies of marijuana and a couple of cartons of cigarettes. The drone was also seized Sunday morning, authorities said.

Prison officials said they are investigating and no arrests have been made.

“I’m guessing the inmates who were expecting the package are crabby,” prisons spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said.

Keeping contraband out of state prisons is a constant battle. People would toss or use a catapult to get packages of cellphones, drugs or other illegal items over the perimeter fence until officials raised the fences and added netting at the top.

People trying to smuggle things behind bars moved on to drones, leaving corrections officials to constantly patrol the prison yard and just outside for the tiny aircraft trying to drop packages.

Just flying a drone near a prison in South Carolina is a misdemeanor crime that carries up to 30 days in jail. Dropping contraband into the prison is a felony that can land someone behind bars for 10 years.

Report Error Submit a Tip

World

LOAD WORLD ARTICLES