Posted on 07/01/2024 11:02:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Lake County Sheriff’s Department in Florida reported a 72-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly shooting down a Walmart delivery drone.
Dennis Winn, 72, was arrested after he allegedly shot down a Walmart Delivery drone that was making mock deliveries in his neighborhood.
According to Local 12 News, Winn fired shots at the drone because he believed it was watching him.
Winn is being charged with”shooting at an aircraft, criminal mischief with damage over $1,000, and discharging a firearm on public or residential property.”
Despite taking a bullet, the drone was able to fly back safely to Walmart, but an investigation revealed the drone received close to $2,500 worth of damages.
Per WCTV:
A Florida man was arrested after he shot down a Walmart delivery drone in his neighborhood, according to officials.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said they received a call about a Walmart delivery drone being shot on Wednesday.
Responding deputies confirmed there was a bullet hole in the load that the drone was carrying.
Witnesses identified the shooter as Dennis Winn, 72. When speaking with deputies, Winn admitted to shooting at the drone once with a 9mm pistol, the sheriff’s office said.
Winn was arrested and charged with shooting at an aircraft, criminal mischief damage over $1,000, and discharging a firearm in public or residential property.
According to Forbes, Walmart started offering drone deliveries in 2021 and currently offers them in Arizona, Florida, and Texas.
Here’s how Walmart’s drone deliveries work:
VIDEO AT LINK..............
Are they going to arrest any Walmart drone operators for bombing if one of their drones drops a gallon of milk on someone’s car, kid, or whatever?
🙄..............................
We don’t know at what altitude the drone was flying, it might have dipped below the rooftops between homes and may have been fifteen feet above the ground, that’s when he got it. Most of these commercial drones feed video back to the controlling source, no?
IFFOW
Yeah I was curious about the same. If I fly my drone of other people’s property, I assumed they could shoot it down. It’s definitely don’t legal to be flying over residential property with a camera. What routes were these drones taking?
If they guy had time to pull out a gun and shoot this drone, it sounds to me like maybe he had a case for thinking it was watching him.
Also, the drone took a bullet according to the article. This guy is a pretty good shot, specially if that drone was moving. A shot gun would probably be more effective.
“Fly at or below 400 feet.”
Delivery drones don’t drop the items from above 400 feet ...
>>Fly at or below 400 feet.
Maybe for recreational drones, commercial ones would have to follow proper regs; which for a residential area would need to be at LEAST 500 feet up.
14 CFR § 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:
(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.
(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.
(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
Pull!
I have drone detection/identification system for sale. A quad mount can be used to vector a camera or gun platform at a target drone.
What’s his FR screen name?
I wonder what his FReeper screen name is/was........LOL!
Wait. Is this saying walmart delivery drones are a protected species or that there is a bag limit?
“Sounds to me that a few of those were violated….”
Which ones?
“Keep your drone within sight” doesn’t apply to FPV or autonomous drones.
“they claim it hit the payload, but I am sure that nothing walmart would deliver by drone is over $100”
Article says it hit drone.
I only have a little DJI that I use for personal stuff, like taking third person shots of family outings in scenic places. I have used it to aerial survey my roof, my immediate neighborhood, etc, but again, just recreational stuff. As a non-licensed operator (not required for my drone), I am not supposed to ever let the drone get out of my direct sight, though the radio link is capable of controlling it beyond where I can still visually see it and I have transitions to the video link. Most of what I have used it for has been inside of a mile or three.
To answer your question, likely yes, though I dont know how the rules change for commercially licensed operations. As a practical matter, for safety of persons on the ground and the drone itself, I dont think the drone operators would want to be operating close to the ground except to vertically insert the delivery and then vertically exit the area. Is it possible to lose the video link when below the roof lines? I would think its highly possible.
“So it is legal to discharge a firearm on commercial and industrial property?”
Where did you get such an idea?
“Would he not be charged if he went to Walmart and shot it on their property?”
Yes. 790.15 Discharging firearm in public or on residential property.
For the Winn!
How high is the airspace above your house yours? Maybe it was trespassing.
I think 7-1/2 shot game loads would be a good choice.
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