Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and have to side with the concerned father/home owner on this one.
Man shoots down drone hovering over house
Merideth, 47, lives in Hillview, Kentucky. As WDRB-TV reports, a neighbor heard gunshots and called the police. Merideth allegedly told the police that a drone was hovering over his house, where his teen daughter (he has two) was sunbathing. So he pulled out his gun and gave it a merry death.
He says that shortly after the shooting, he received a visit from four men who claimed to be responsible for the drone and explaining that it cost $1,800.
Merideth says he stood his ground: “I had my 40 mm Glock on me and they started toward me and I told them, ‘If you cross my sidewalk, there’s gonna be another shooting.’”
For his part, Merideth says he will sue the drone’s owners. He told WRDB: “You know, when you’re in your own property, within a six-foot privacy fence, you have the expectation of privacy. We don’t know if he was looking at the girls. We don’t know if he was looking for something to steal. To me, it was the same as trespassing.”
I remember seeing a website that will allow one to enter their address into it, the info then becomes part of a geo fence. The newer drones built then get the latest firmware with your address setup as part of a geofence to prevent fly overs.
Guess older units can still do fly overs unless they have had their firmware updated.
The drone guys were mad because folks don’t have to prove they own the property. You could just go in and register all your neighbors and blanket your whole block.
He is going to be charged with unlawfully discharging a gun within city limits. Probably a suitable charge as an unarmed drone doesn’t justify use of deadly force. Sorry, as annoying as this is, it still doesn’t justify shooting off rounds. Is like shooting someone who peer over your fence. If he also threatened people with violence over crossing the sidewalk; he should be thankful he isn’t being charged with assault.
What I find odd is what is quoted from the FAA.
“The best the agency can tell us is if a drone is hovering under 10 feet on your property, it might be considered trespassing.” So does that mean hovering at 100 feet and using a zoom lens is OK by our ever benevolent government? Irony. National Parks Service bans the use of drones at national parks while mere little people have to contend with asshats violating their privacy.
Unfortunately, the few idiots who think it’s fun to overfly people’s homes and violate their privacy are going to ruin the whole RC plane and drone fun for the rest of the country.
Wonder if there is a non lethal way to trash these drones?
All a drone pilot would have to do is turn off GPS on the drone. They don’t need it to fly, just for some of the more advanced features. Drones can fly by entirely by FPV.
Anyway,there’s no infrastructure for geofencing drones. Besides, a segment of the hobby involves building these drones. It would be easy to just build them without any geofencce restrictions.
