This one is a first for me. I've been flying drones at home for years, but just a few months ago finally took the leap from $100 Amazon drone to a legit DJI drone. In that entire time I've only had some kids come up to me and want to try it. Never had a problem until today.
I'm in my back yard, on my patio with my drone about 200ft in the air off to my northeast, when I notice a man walking through the back yard. I share a fence line with a bunch of houses so I think nothing of it, until he shouts "Is that your drone?". I'm holding the controller, my landing pad is out, so it's a reasonable assumption but I hold back sarcasm and just answer "I am flying my drone." At which point the gentleman uses select words to tell me to stop hovering over his home. He said its loud, it annoys him, and he doesn't want me spying on him.
My first thought is to apologize, but then i remembered I'm flying over a farm field, so I ask where he lives. He lives in an apt building across the street to my southwest. The Polar opposite of where I've been flying the last 15 minutes. I try telling him this but he continues cursing me out. I get upset and snapped a bit when I said "Sir my drone is those bright flashing lights in the sky over to the northeast. The exact opposite direction of where you live." He says "No one else is out here flying a drone so i know it's you!"
At this point I'm getting frustrated and say "Sir even if I flew over your apartment building at some point the drone is 200ft up in the air and I can promise you no matter where I am I'm not watching you." I went a step further by showing him the 5 pics of the sunset over the farmland that I had taken via the drones album. He did not care. He told me he if he had to come back there would be trouble. The threat upset me so I lost my cool a bit and said "First off I have no desire to use a $1400 drone to watch drink yourself to death by yourself (He reeked of alcohol) , and second in this county there are no additional drone laws beyond the federal ones. I'm not going to, but if I wanted to I could fly the airspace above your apartment to my hearts content as long as I follow the laws." He gave me one last warning and left my yard.
I thought it nothing more than a drunk lonely guy picking a fight and I let it go. I continued flying my drone, consciously keeping a 100ft buffer from being anywhere near his apartment. I'm flying over woods maintening VLOS. It's nearly sunset so I turn my strobe light on as a precaution and continued flying.
My "neighbor" storms back into my back yard and takes his threats up a notch. At this point I've had it. His drunken stupidity is no longer an excuse. So I tell him to get the F off my property. I told him if I'm doing something wrong call the cops so they can come over and tell him he's an idiot.
He hurled one last threat my way along the lines of "I dare you to fly near me again!" Having had enough I lost it and said "I've shown you I'm nowhere near you, I've shown you my entire photo/video library on the drone with nothing but nature and buildings. I've told you I'm legally allowed to be here, so WTF are you going to do because your threats are idle." I guess he didn't like that because he sticks his hand in his waistband and says "I'll shoot the (Mod Removed Language)drone, then I'll shoot you." My first reaction is that he's a drunk idiot and I'm a 6'2" 280lb military veteran. I'm going to kick his (Mod Removed Language)Then I remembered all the recent events. We even had a police officer murdered on duty downtown last night. People have gone crazy. I even recently saw the most disturbing video I've ever seen in my life where neighbors had a dispute over snow shoveling and the neighbor comes back with a rifle and kills both neighbors like animals in the street. Not just shooting them, that sicko executed them over a neighborly dispute like this one.
I have a wife and kids inside so I said screw this and called the cops. Last thing I need is some hillbilly gunning me down in a week and no one knowing why, so I called 311 (Non Emergency Police). I told them what transpired, that my neighbor threatened to shoot me and gestured like he had a gun in his waistband. I tell them he reeks of alcohol so he's probably just drunk and picking a fight, but you never know.
I expected a single sheriff to respond to take a statement like an hour later. Instead, 5 minutes later, the entire Sheriff's department shows up, parks 50yds around the corner, and tactically swarm the area. Hands on weapons, the approach the neighnor who is sitting on his stoop chain smoking, and they start yelling commands "Stand up, turn around, and interlock your fingers above your head!!" Turns out I was right. Drunk hillbilly, but no gun on him.
He complains to them about my drone. They look at my drone footage and my security camera footage. I even went as far to show them my entire Drone media library in Google Photos. Years worth of flight pics and vids and not a single picture of a person other than my family on vacation, because I usually only take landscape and POI photos. Then they tell him I was nowhere near his property, but even if I was there is nothing they can do about it as long as I continue to follow the law. He tried one last tactic by saying "A lot of other people in this building have complained about his drone too. It's not just me! The obvious question the sheriff asks next is "OK, what are their names and addresses?" Of course it was a bluff. Not one of my neighbors has ever complained or asked me to stop. They leave him with a warning and tell me if he comes back I can press charges for trespassing.
Hopefully he sleeps it off and that's the end of it. I'd be interested to hear your drone flying horror stories!
I'm in my back yard, on my patio with my drone about 200ft in the air off to my northeast, when I notice a man walking through the back yard. I share a fence line with a bunch of houses so I think nothing of it, until he shouts "Is that your drone?". I'm holding the controller, my landing pad is out, so it's a reasonable assumption but I hold back sarcasm and just answer "I am flying my drone." At which point the gentleman uses select words to tell me to stop hovering over his home. He said its loud, it annoys him, and he doesn't want me spying on him.
My first thought is to apologize, but then i remembered I'm flying over a farm field, so I ask where he lives. He lives in an apt building across the street to my southwest. The Polar opposite of where I've been flying the last 15 minutes. I try telling him this but he continues cursing me out. I get upset and snapped a bit when I said "Sir my drone is those bright flashing lights in the sky over to the northeast. The exact opposite direction of where you live." He says "No one else is out here flying a drone so i know it's you!"
At this point I'm getting frustrated and say "Sir even if I flew over your apartment building at some point the drone is 200ft up in the air and I can promise you no matter where I am I'm not watching you." I went a step further by showing him the 5 pics of the sunset over the farmland that I had taken via the drones album. He did not care. He told me he if he had to come back there would be trouble. The threat upset me so I lost my cool a bit and said "First off I have no desire to use a $1400 drone to watch drink yourself to death by yourself (He reeked of alcohol) , and second in this county there are no additional drone laws beyond the federal ones. I'm not going to, but if I wanted to I could fly the airspace above your apartment to my hearts content as long as I follow the laws." He gave me one last warning and left my yard.
I thought it nothing more than a drunk lonely guy picking a fight and I let it go. I continued flying my drone, consciously keeping a 100ft buffer from being anywhere near his apartment. I'm flying over woods maintening VLOS. It's nearly sunset so I turn my strobe light on as a precaution and continued flying.
My "neighbor" storms back into my back yard and takes his threats up a notch. At this point I've had it. His drunken stupidity is no longer an excuse. So I tell him to get the F off my property. I told him if I'm doing something wrong call the cops so they can come over and tell him he's an idiot.
He hurled one last threat my way along the lines of "I dare you to fly near me again!" Having had enough I lost it and said "I've shown you I'm nowhere near you, I've shown you my entire photo/video library on the drone with nothing but nature and buildings. I've told you I'm legally allowed to be here, so WTF are you going to do because your threats are idle." I guess he didn't like that because he sticks his hand in his waistband and says "I'll shoot the (Mod Removed Language)drone, then I'll shoot you." My first reaction is that he's a drunk idiot and I'm a 6'2" 280lb military veteran. I'm going to kick his (Mod Removed Language)Then I remembered all the recent events. We even had a police officer murdered on duty downtown last night. People have gone crazy. I even recently saw the most disturbing video I've ever seen in my life where neighbors had a dispute over snow shoveling and the neighbor comes back with a rifle and kills both neighbors like animals in the street. Not just shooting them, that sicko executed them over a neighborly dispute like this one.
I have a wife and kids inside so I said screw this and called the cops. Last thing I need is some hillbilly gunning me down in a week and no one knowing why, so I called 311 (Non Emergency Police). I told them what transpired, that my neighbor threatened to shoot me and gestured like he had a gun in his waistband. I tell them he reeks of alcohol so he's probably just drunk and picking a fight, but you never know.
I expected a single sheriff to respond to take a statement like an hour later. Instead, 5 minutes later, the entire Sheriff's department shows up, parks 50yds around the corner, and tactically swarm the area. Hands on weapons, the approach the neighnor who is sitting on his stoop chain smoking, and they start yelling commands "Stand up, turn around, and interlock your fingers above your head!!" Turns out I was right. Drunk hillbilly, but no gun on him.
He complains to them about my drone. They look at my drone footage and my security camera footage. I even went as far to show them my entire Drone media library in Google Photos. Years worth of flight pics and vids and not a single picture of a person other than my family on vacation, because I usually only take landscape and POI photos. Then they tell him I was nowhere near his property, but even if I was there is nothing they can do about it as long as I continue to follow the law. He tried one last tactic by saying "A lot of other people in this building have complained about his drone too. It's not just me! The obvious question the sheriff asks next is "OK, what are their names and addresses?" Of course it was a bluff. Not one of my neighbors has ever complained or asked me to stop. They leave him with a warning and tell me if he comes back I can press charges for trespassing.
Hopefully he sleeps it off and that's the end of it. I'd be interested to hear your drone flying horror stories!
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