Captured unusual activity with my drone

[Scubadiver1944]

Nice one Steve Christensen
A good advert for drone user, help to show most of us are good people.
I assume it was freshly stolen so it was a case of get rid of it until safe to go back & recover it.

Well done Steve Christensen, or should I say aerial Sherlock Holmes? At first sight I thought the driver might've been what we call in the UK a "fly tipper" abandoning old, unwanted gear but on closer inspection new goods, obviously stolen to be picked up later under cover of darkness. Reminds me of some years ago having the house burgled while I was at work, theft of a rifle carried away in a bright yellow divers bag. Informed the police and within 24 hours they returned missing property to me, having been found in a nearby house under construction and reported to them by local kids playing on the building site. Culprit(s) must've thought it too suspicious walking around with a conspicuous, bright, yellow bag in broad daylight. Obviously upgraded my security as a result!

 

[skunky1]

Maybe he doesn’t want his wife to find out!

I’ve hidden stuff from my wife as she always complains I waste money eg that “annoying buzzing flying camera contraption” [emoji2]

Doesn’t make sense for the guy to dump stolen goods after removing it from his vehicle.

 

[Brockrock]

There goes the community car wash he had planned for the weekend?‍

 

[StuckInTree]

It was amazing that you panned the camera to the right to put the car in the far left of the frame before he dragged the merchandise off to the bushes in the far right of the frame. Did you guess that’s where he planned to stash it?

Rule of thirds. ?

 

[rehkram]

I’ve hidden stuff from my wife as she always complains I waste money eg that “annoying buzzing flying camera contraption” [emoji2]

My wife's the same about my open back banjos. I moved them to my shop so I can practise an hour or so each day without strife and/or guilt. Works for me.

 

[LifesShort]

My guess is that he was dropping if off to be picked up by someone else. Great job of following him and calling the cops.

 

[pinballwiz86]

That’s awesome OP. I wish we could see the look on his face when he goes back at night and it’s not there anymore!! Ahahaha..

 

[Fallguy]

Awesome . This reminds me of what I had happen to me and I made a funny video out of it . But then found out the one guy took a shot at my drone (second video )

 

[Tentoes]

Wonder if he had used it to clean up a crime scene.

 

[Tentoes]

Awesome . This reminds me of what I had happen to me and I made a funny video out of it . But then found out the one guy took a shot at my drone (second video )

They sure skedaddled in a rush!

 

[LA 2020]

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:

2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc

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sjjc.smugmug.com

Power washer:

2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc

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sjjc.smugmug.com

Drones can be useful to the public and things like this help to show that, nice job

 

[monteolsen1]

Good for you. Great thinking about using the drone.

 

[lookout]

You're on a mission and you're not paying attention to little details like the kids are doing cartwheels or somebody is waving at the drone. It's just things you notice after the playback.

 

[lookout]

Maybe he doesn’t want his wife to find out!

I’ve hidden stuff from my wife as she always complains I waste money eg that “annoying buzzing flying camera contraption” [emoji2]

Doesn’t make sense for the guy to dump stolen goods after removing it from his vehicle.

?

 

[Amckim2084]

Maybe he was hiding a geocache lol

 

[DynoTech]

Eye in the sky.

An excellent podcast title by Radiolab btw well worth a listen.

 

[Steve221]

I would have thought he could have heard the drone from the height at which you appeared to be.

I'm not surprised. My M2Pro is much quieter than I thought it would be, especially if not moving.

 

[OldGoatMTB]

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:

2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc

This video hosted by SmugMug; your photos and videos look better here.

sjjc.smugmug.com

Power washer:

2020 Been Caught Steal’n - sjjc

This photo hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

sjjc.smugmug.com

I'm sure some people will want to attack me for posting the following question (those people can STFU) but it what you did "surveilling" someone, and technically illegal?

 

[Badgersurfer]

Haha, nice video. Obviously the poor guy couldn't handle the pressure...

 

[bentbrent]

My guess is that he is a store employee, taking merchandise out the back door. Then he stashes it during his break or lunch time and goes back for it after work. A quick check of the closest Lowes store, for which employee drives a car that matches that description, should quickly identify the culprit. While you may not have gotten a highly detailed image, you captured enough info to bluff a confession out of him/her, or simply maintain surveillance of the culprit, and catch him/her red-handed next time. I wrote Lowes because the OP did. Perhaps there were tags on the washer that indicated that it came from Lowes.