I had a strange experience yesterday when I was out flying my MM in an abandoned golf course. When I do get to fly it is often at this course because it's a large property without the fear of flying over people, cars or homes, etc. At most it will have walkers, joggers and the occasional golf cart on the paths. Anyway, as I was flying I was startled as a car drove past me on the old cart path - there are never cars on the path. My immediate thought was someone was out joy riding. Since I had the drone up in the air, I started to follow the car to see what was going on, but then it just got more bizarre as the driver stopped about a quarter mile away to stash something in the woods. I might have been naive, but at this point I didn't suspect anything criminal was going on, so unfortunately never flew low enough to get a good shot of the license plate. Maybe if I was flying my M2P it would have had a good enough image to make out the numbers from where I was hovering, but then again, they might have noticed it up in the air. Not getting the plates was my big regret.
After "the suspect left the scene" I walked down to see what was left behind and found a brand new Ryobi power washer with store tags still attached, so naturally I called the police. A half hour or so later they came out and I showed them the video and we walked out to look at the site. They picked up the washer, inspected the area a little bit more and called in to see if anyone or the local Lowes had reported any missing merch. You can also see in the video at the 2:20 mark, the person throws something into the field before they get back into the car, so the two officers and I walked around the field for a few minutes to see what he might have thrown, but unfortunately didn't find anything. I may go back with a metal detector later. I AirDropped the video to them for evidence (after showing them how AirDrop works
), and I heard one officer tell the other how strange this call was. Glad it wasn't just me.
It certainly was one of the more exciting flights I've had! I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else had any similar experiences like this.
Video:
sjjc.smugmug.com
Power washer:
sjjc.smugmug.com
After "the suspect left the scene" I walked down to see what was left behind and found a brand new Ryobi power washer with store tags still attached, so naturally I called the police. A half hour or so later they came out and I showed them the video and we walked out to look at the site. They picked up the washer, inspected the area a little bit more and called in to see if anyone or the local Lowes had reported any missing merch. You can also see in the video at the 2:20 mark, the person throws something into the field before they get back into the car, so the two officers and I walked around the field for a few minutes to see what he might have thrown, but unfortunately didn't find anything. I may go back with a metal detector later. I AirDropped the video to them for evidence (after showing them how AirDrop works
), and I heard one officer tell the other how strange this call was. Glad it wasn't just me.It certainly was one of the more exciting flights I've had! I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else had any similar experiences like this.
Video:
2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc
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sjjc.smugmug.com
Power washer:
2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc
This photo hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.
sjjc.smugmug.com
