Posted on 08/01/2015 11:31:04 AM PDT by Enlightened1
A father has been arrested after shooting down an $1,800 drone that was reportedly hovering over his two sunbathing daughters.
William H. Merideth, 47, from Kentucky was charged with first-degree criminal mischief and first-degree wanton endangerment.
The owner of the drone claims he was only trying to take pictures of a friend's house when Merideth shot at the device, sending it crashing into a field near his yard last weekend.
Sunday afternoon, the kids – my girls – were out on the back deck, and the neighbors were out in their yard," Merideth told WDRD. 'And they come in and said, "Dad, there’s a drone out here, flying over everybody’s yard."
'I went and got my shotgun and I said, "I'm not going to do anything unless it's directly over my property,"' he added.
At that time, the drone was hovering over the house of a neighbor, Kim VanMater, who has a 16-year-old daughter who likes to lay out by the pool.
VanMeter said: '(The drone) was just hovering above our house and it stayed for a few moments and then my daughter finally waved and it took off.'
It then allegedly flew over the Merideths' garden.
Mr Merideth said: 'Within a minute or so, here it came. It was hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky. I didn't shoot across the road, I didn't shoot across my neighbor's fences, I shot directly into the air.'
Four men were about to confront him after the drone was shot out of the sky, but he says they soon changed their minds when they saw his firearms.
'I had my Glock on me and they started toward me and I told them, "If you cross my sidewalk, there's gonna be another shooting,"'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Whoever comes up with an inexpensive way for homeowners to EMP the drones will make a fortune.
As I understand it, You own the airspace over your property. I definitely would shoot at a drone hovering over my house. if he brought it down with a shotgun it was pretty close. I would estimate within 30 yards or so.
At least you settled a little bet I had with myself, you don’t know anything.
Shoot, Shovel & Shut Up?!
Sounds like trespassing to me.
A drone is on the wishlist and by the time I get one, abusers will cause them to be banned knowing how things work.
can he charge the drone operator with trespassing??
That depends. If your drone is over your property or public property, that's different from flying it over someone else's property (particularly as a voyeur). Assuming this case is being reported correctly, I would vote not guilty in a criminal trial regardless of the letter of the law. In a civil trial, I would vote for the drone owner to compensate the responsible father for the cost of ammo.
And they self identify in their fanatical lust crazed state.
I would absolutely vote to convict on those charges.
Put your pants back on little billy.
The rest of us are addressing the viewing of young girls in a state of undress and under no circumstances will you deflect that from being the topic we are debating.
Try READING the article FIRST.... before you jump to concoctions that it’s just an innocent perverted peeping Tom with a Drone camera hovering over little girls sunbathing in their backyard.
It was an $1,800 Drone. What does that tell you?
Would your young daughters agree with that attitude? Would you have that attitude if it was the folks at DHS...you know,the ones who issued the memo saying that veterans of the Armed Forces and those with anti-abortion bumper stickers are potential domestic terrorists...were controlling it?
Tell ya what lil’ billybutthead, come fly your voyeur toy over my property, please. You’ll find out real fast what right is.
The correct answer to peeping toms is not vandalism.
Peppin billy is referring to HIS Miranda Rights.
It’s actually been pretty well addressed. The ground below mostly is your property. The air above mostly is not.
I would say it appears to be a voyeur of sorts. The neighbor’s daughter waved and they moved it. Thus, it looks like they were looking at her.
I do not like that the cops did not take the SIM card. I also think the drone should have been kept as evidence if they were going to file charges.
I would hope the homeowner is exonerated and their legal costs reimbursed by the trespasser.
Fly it over my property in an effort to spy and I'll shoot it down too.
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