I was flying my drone at my family lake house in Oklahoma. I was going up high and flying towards the lake. I flew over the neighbors property once at 116 meters and just kissed the edge of his property once at 75 meters when flying back according to the flight record gps. I was actually flying from the backyard and heard what I thought was a gun shot. It's the country so in the back of my mind I wondered if some guy was shooting at my drone but didn't get really nervous or anything. About 3 minutes later another shot rang out. At this point I started getting worried and panned the camera around. Then about 30 seconds later another shot rang out. At this point I was pretty sure even thought I couldn't see anything on the screen since it was so small that I knew what was going on. I came inside to look at the footage and saw the neighbor shooting into the air on the third shot. I'm not sure if he shot directly at the drone on the first and second shot or if he did the same thing with those as he did with the third shot. But either way all three shots happened when I was over my property.
We went over to ask him if he was shooting at my drone and through a lot of expletives he said I was on his property and this is the country and he'll shoot at anything he wants to out here.
We called the sheriff but they basically said there is nothing they can do since it's legal to shoot guns in your front yard out in the country... they say you're responsible for where that bullet goes... but it's not against the law to shoot out here. They also said that people have a right to their privacy. I told him that I'm pretty sure a guy standing in his front yard isn't necessarily entitled to privacy, otherwise how would news agencies film someone from the street. The sheriff said "well the news agencies get away with a lot of stuff." The sheriff went to talk to the neighbor but they basically admit they don't have any knowledge of drone laws and at what height a persons property ends. After the sheriff left the jerk of a neighbor was outside shooting more just to try proving a point that he can do whatever he wants.
I'm really looking to make this a learning experience for myself. My wife keeps telling me "I wonder if he would have done that if you went out and talked to him before you flew"... but I just keep thinking... it's not my responsibility to tell every single person within eyesight that I'm going to fly my drone.
What would you do? How would you handle this? The sheriff said we could call the DA on Monday so we plan on doing that. Another friend told me to report it to the FAA so I did that. I'd love to hear thoughts.
Thanks,
Brad
We went over to ask him if he was shooting at my drone and through a lot of expletives he said I was on his property and this is the country and he'll shoot at anything he wants to out here.
We called the sheriff but they basically said there is nothing they can do since it's legal to shoot guns in your front yard out in the country... they say you're responsible for where that bullet goes... but it's not against the law to shoot out here. They also said that people have a right to their privacy. I told him that I'm pretty sure a guy standing in his front yard isn't necessarily entitled to privacy, otherwise how would news agencies film someone from the street. The sheriff said "well the news agencies get away with a lot of stuff." The sheriff went to talk to the neighbor but they basically admit they don't have any knowledge of drone laws and at what height a persons property ends. After the sheriff left the jerk of a neighbor was outside shooting more just to try proving a point that he can do whatever he wants.
I'm really looking to make this a learning experience for myself. My wife keeps telling me "I wonder if he would have done that if you went out and talked to him before you flew"... but I just keep thinking... it's not my responsibility to tell every single person within eyesight that I'm going to fly my drone.
What would you do? How would you handle this? The sheriff said we could call the DA on Monday so we plan on doing that. Another friend told me to report it to the FAA so I did that. I'd love to hear thoughts.
Thanks,
Brad
Last edited: