They attempted to take care of it themselves, at that time, but were unsuccessful. They then hired a bee exterminator to take care of it for them, who was also unsuccessful. Professional bee keepers were then hired to get the job done. They came out, removed part of the brick wall, to take out the honeycombs and flush the colony out. They weren't there to kill them, but rather to "relocate" them.
I certainly didn't want them relocated to my back yard! While that was, of course, never the intention, as the bees left the inside of the house, they decided to swarm into our back yard and gather up on one of our trees. It was quite a site to see a "bee tornado" form and then see them land on the largest tree in our back yard.
