Dad who shot 'snooping vid drone' out of the sky is cleared of charges

Resolution is what its about

Satellites see his yard every day and photograph it. Airliners probably pass over several times each day. News helicopters might overfly once in a while. It is the "Personal Space" that is violated that makes it unsavory and disliked.

David Boggs - A name that will live in infamy.

To think that this guy was hovering his drone over two little girls and has the guts to go public about it.

In the US, of all places.

How is it his name hasn't already been put on the paedo register ?

How fun would it be to shoot a drone out of the sky though? I envy him.

says:

Mini barrage balloons! Get your mini barrage balloons here!

Comes with 250ft of nylon fishing wire as a tether. Only $15 each!

While I certainly *don't* support the chap firing off a gun in a residential area, I completely support his right to have taken down the drone.

It was an egregious extension of the opt-in nature regarding privacy now - everyone is starting to think it's OK just to put a phone in your face, film you, photograph you or whatever. Very often it's for no other reason than the fact that they can.

Well, OK - I partially accept that's the way the world is going, that's how our culture is shifting, and how people are relating to each other differently.

But it's not happening in my house. On my turf, you can bugger right off and I would regard this as the same as getting into my personal space 'bubble' in a physical sense.

Technology is outpacing not only the law but people's sense of moderacy. We can update and control the former, but I'm not sure we can do anything about the latter.

The criminal mischief charge never had a chance. The drone was hovering on his property. That's trespass and under those circumstances the precedent is well established that he had the right to destroy it. The endangerment charge makes a bit more sense. Depending upon exactly which jurisdiction this happened in I could see that one being more problematic to him. If he were in a jurisdiction where level heads prevail they'd realize that a shotgun fired into the air doesn't actually endanger anyone. Shot doesn't fall fast enough to be a problem and it sheds it's angular velocity very quickly.

Counter measures

eagle downs drone

Are you allowed to own eagles in the UK? might make up for the lack of firearms.

Some clarifications

1) The airspace above his property is not his. It "belongs" to the FAA, and as such, does not count at trespass. If it did, BA would be invading my property about 300 times a day. The judge was technically in error to claim trespass.

2) Pilot has telemetry and witnesses showing he was not 10ft from the daughter. Nearer 200ft. At what height does privacy become a reasonable expectation? Why was the telemetry not considered in the case?

3) Shotguns at 200ft...It's a phantom, and farting on it the wrong way will inflict a fatal wound. A single pellet would have been enough if it jammed a motor or broke a prop.

4) Spying with a wide angle lens? Now that's funny...

5) Taking off and landing from your property means you can plausibly cross over neighbours property. See also: Heathrow. Can I shoot down anything now?

The fun begins if this phantom has been registered. It then officially becomes an aircraft for the FAA and NTSB. And guess what? shooting down "aircraft" is a federal offence and would have warranted a closed scene investigation by the NTSB (pretty comical). Try shooting down a news helicopter (complete with it's stabilised, massive zoom red epic camera) as it flies overhead and see if the judge thinks your privacy was still worth it.

Best answer. Should you fly your drone over some one else's property without permission, you should be fined, based upon a complaint from the property owner. Should you discharge a fire arm in any residential area when you life is not threatened, you share be shared and enjoy a short compulsory holiday.

The drone operator can sue for damages and the home owner can sue for invasion of privacy, both valid.

coming soon....

A "drone shooting sport launching soon where you get points for shooting down drones

shooting down an amazon drone will get you the most points shooting down a "bog standardl" drone the least points

Would be interested in more detail..

Maybe I should read some other articles on this..

I've flown some model aircraft in proper areas designated for their flight. At distance I found it fairly hard to be exactly sure of where the craft was in reference to me - I would not have been able to tell if it had crossed the fence line. Most RC planes and gliders are larger than the drones I've seen, so drones could be harder to determine their actual position when you're a bit of a distance away from it.

Any telemetry and video data from the drone could've been telling.. Was the drone owner intending to film his own house for whatever reason, then whip over to a mate's place a few doors away (much easier and more fun to fly than land, pick the thing up, walk there, take off...)? Had wind shifts caused him to be a bit further from where he was? Was he actually fighting a headwind and not actually meaning to over over the shooter's home but trying to fly into a headwind? Maybe he was so focused on the great shots he was getting of his own yard that he did not realise where he was.

If he was trying to snoop, he should expect at best to lose his drone. If not, he maybe should've checked with neighbours and let them know what's what.

Mostly the drone operator is at fault, but maybe the shooter reacted a bit too hotly? The video would tell...

(BTW, first "drone" I ever saw was a NZ kids TV series back in the early 80's... One kid attached a RF transmitter to an old (new in the day) video camera (VHS type) which he then attached to his RC helicopter (back then they could be quite large - I've seen some with somewhere near a 2m rotor diameter although the one in the series would've been closed to 1m)

Rail Gun

It sounds like an ideal application for a small rail gun with a tungsten dart. Remove the inconsiderate intrusions to our privacy.

The definition of satisfaction

I can't help thinking how immensely satisfying it must have been to shoot one of those wretched things out of the sky.

See ladies and gentlemen…

This is why America needs more 'roos.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/24/kangaroo_boxes_drone_out_of_the_sky/

Kiwi Anti Drone Methods

A big difference between the U.S. and New Zealand is the number of guns people have. Therefore. Kiwis have to get a bit more creative and that old 'do it yourself' attitude comes to the fore. This young lad is also ensuring the All Blacks selectors keep tabs on him!

https://youtu.be/4emOInWh2ec

this guy had the same idea about shooting drones, but had something to hide......

warning content very NSFW https://www.beastforum.com/showtopic-250567.html

The site name should be a warning.....