Enjoy.
Enjoy.
Like they say in the Air Defense Artillery, If it flies it dies.
Reason No. 1 of a 1000 to live in the country. Ask the squirrels visiting my Pear Trees daily.
I live in rural central KY. I vowed to be far from any city limits. This is just one of MANY advantages to it. And I can hunt without a license on my property (because it’s over 10 acres).
When you live in city limits, you really do give up a lot of your “self defense” rights. Cities are a form of a “collective”.
You’ll notice the guy who lived out in the sticks that was reported here a week or so ago didn’t go to jail for shooting down a drone. There is a reason. ;-)
I just love that response. Reading this, the excuse of "friend's home" just doesn't jive with what is described as a progressive inspection (some at low level) of multiple homes. There are some parts of the description of events that read like peeping tom.
If you own a drone and think you can just fly over someone's personal property to do whatever, then you should also be responsible for the risk involved you'll lose your expensive toy.
At some points, the drone was only 10 feet off the ground. Could’ve caught it with a pool skimmer.
Jury nullification.
“Four guys came over to confront me about it, and I happened to be armed, so that changed their minds,” Merideth said.
Right or wrong, I hope Merideth has a 5 figure bank account to fund his legal expenses. Between his defense attorney and civil suit attorney, he's going to be shelling out tens of thousands.
The "criminal mischief" charge is debatable as the drone was destroyed which may be illegal. The "wanton endangerment" is actually wanton over-charging on the prosecutor's part. Since the drone landed in a field this is obviously a semi-rural area, the guy hit his target, and birdshot fired in the air isn't going to hurt anyone or anything on the ground. On top of that the police gave they voyeurs their drone back. Glad to see the police and DA giving everyone more reasons to hate them.
I have quizzed land surveyors about this. There is a minimum altitude (FAA rule) that planes and helicopters can fly over your property. Anything less than that could be considered trespassing. I don’t remember the altitude, but its certainly higher than shotgun range.
This guy is going to get in trouble because of the discharge of a firearm in the city limits...but its not ‘ok’ to hover around over other people’s property. Especially as drones get bigger and have more powerful blades - if they fall or fly at you, it could actually be dangerous.
‘it was down by the neighbor’s house, about 10 feet off the ground, looking under their canopy that they’ve got under their back yard’
I sure hope the owners of the drone are charged with SOMETHING. They are nothing but creepy voyeurs.
I’m very sympathetic to the man but let’s just say someone shoots a drone out of the sky and it crashes and damages someone’s roof - who’s responsible, the gunman or the drone owner? Let’s say it crashes and kills a neighbor’s dog who didn’t see it coming - who’s responsible, the gunman or the drone owner? Let’s say it knocks a satellite dish off somebody’s roof - who pays to fix it? Etc.
Does the drone owner have an unlimited right to air space over people’s homes without their permission and without consequence? Does the homeowner have an unlimited right to self-defense of any perceived intruders in the air space above his head? I don’t think we want to grant either one but I lean more towards the man with the house because, after all, he can’t move the house and he has put in place all reasonable means of privacy to his property. The drone owner should be limited to public right of ways and properties where he has permission to fly over.
how about paintballs?
frozen paintballs?
how about drone shooting immunity?
Amazon wants a 400 foot “drone corridor” to fly through people’s homes’ airspace. Will amazon be paying for this?
Pull!
Of course I wouldn't lie about any of the events leading up to my action in that kind of situation, but I don't believe that the county sheriff would arrest me nor would a judge find me guilty of breaking a law that doesn't exist.
A guy in my neighborhood has been flying an RC/drone over our houses...
I went out and told him not to be surprised if it didn’t come back at some point if he kept on doing that...
He now flies it over a large open field...
-PJ
I do believe that the courts have determined that your property lines extend vertically (and possibly, infinitely?) unless, like subterranean property lines (AKA: mineral rights) you have exchanged those rights for recompense.
Think: military fly zones.