William Meredith of Hillview, Kentucky, saw a privately owned drone flying over his property. He took out his shotgun and shot the drone, destroying it. Then he was arrested for First Degree Criminal Mischief and First Degree Reckless Endangerment. Both charges seem to stem from firing the gun rather than from destroying someone else’s property.
On the one hand, he seems like a jerk. When the owner of the drone came to his house to confront him, Meredith threatened the man.
On the other hand, he does have a point. When the drone first entered his property, he had no way of know that it wasn’t being used to plan a robbery or by a peeping tom to spy on his daughter.
I would imagine there is some law which gives aircraft the right to fly over private property, but perhaps with a minimum height allowed. Perhaps the law has not yet caught up with drones.
That question is analogous to asking, “How fast can an aircraft go?”
There’s certainly an upper limit which can safely be said to answer the question, but that upper limit describes a highly specialized and unusual configuration.
Glider or F-15 Eagle?
Or in the case of shotguns, what gauge, what choke, what load?
It’s conceivable for a shotgun to propel a projectile 1500 feet vertically, although it wouldn’t have a lot of punch at that point. That would be an unusual event.
I’ve flown a friend’s drone. It’s an expensive toy that we kept over his own property. He has shot video over neighbors’ homes, but that’s been at their request. How does someone explain/defend their drone “trespassing”?
A commonly available mid range drone, like the DJI Phantom 2 Vision Plus with range extender, has a remote control range of 1 km (3280 feet). So yeah you can fly your drone legally over other people’s property just fine, launch over public property or your own property. The Phantom 2 has GPS including altitude displayed on your iphone, so you can be sure you are above 500 feet before you go flying over other property.
Right…he’s not being charged for shooting down the drone, but for shooting his shot gun into the air. I’m not sure what sort of neighborhood they are in, but if his neighbors are close enough for him to have seen the drone peeping in his neighbors window as he claimed I’m guessing it’s a residential neighborhood, so shooting a shotgun would definitely be a no-no. I’ve seen one of my own neighbors hauled away by the police for firing a shotgun at a coyote in the neighborhood…and I cheered when they did (they let him off with a fine in the end) because it was freaking stupid and dangerous, unlike the coyote which was small, scrawny and simply scrounging for snacks and could have been chased off with a stick.
As for the guys who lost their $1800.00 drone…fuck em. No sympathy from me on that score. And when they tried to confront this guy on his own property and got hauled up short because he was armed…again, fuck them. They should be fined as well for flying their drone over other peoples houses without permission, but I think the sting of losing their expensive drone and being humiliated when they tried to make something of it and were pulled up short ought to balance the scales a bit.
I was looking at the drones yesterday in Frye’s. $499.95. I can imagine I’d be pretty pissed if someone shot mine down. But then, I’d ask for permission before violating someone’s privacy.
Looks like this is after all a plain case of a gun aficionado who simply does not know the laws, and is willing to recklessly endanger others in his dense suburban neighborhood.
*The FAA says drones cannot fly over buildings – and that shooting them poses a significant safety hazard.
…It wasn’t long before the drone’s owners appeared.
“Four guys came over to confront me about it, and I happened to be armed, so that changed their minds,” Merideth said.
“They asked me, ‘Are you the S-O-B that shot my drone?’ and I said, ‘Yes I am,’” he said. “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.’”
*.
The drone owner was flying over houses.
The drone owner and his friends aggressively confronted the home owner but didn’t press the issue against the defensively-armed home owner.
Drones are a new tool/menace and societies laws have not yet been created/adjusted to deal with their use. I suggest that drone owners be required to obtain written permission from any homeowner before they fly their drones over the property.
But as drones become something anyone can obtain and use, I do think that it is obvious that we’ll see more incidents like this. And eventally someone is going to get hurt.
Not sure I have any good answers. Ground-to-Air combat is porbably not the wisest course, however.
