Drone invasion

[iris lilies]

A neighbor is flying his drone around, causing it to hover at upper story windows.

someone posted their annoyance about this on Nextdoor, but that was on the other side of our neighborhood and I didnt realize the drone belonged to our nearby neighbor

Tonight someone on my block talked about waking up to this drone hovering at her bedroom window.she said someone else On our block has complained to her about it, too.

at this point we know who has it because he makes lovely videos of our neighborhood taken from the drone and posts them on Nextdoor. But, neighbors need to tell him to cut it right out, the peeping!

do you all have any of this going on?

[Williamsmith]

An interesting problem which could be brought to a head by someone simply dropping it out of the sky and returning it in pieces to its owner. But in my neighborhood the HOA board would be on this guys ass pronto.

[flowerseverywhere]

We had one neighbor who had one, and many people complained about him harassing the wildlife. He flew close to a big great blue heron roosting tree, and hovered above alligators. All the neighbors complained and he was adamant it was within his rights as a “videographer”. To film what he wanted. Eventually he moved away thank goodness so we don’t know if complaints ever resulted in any charges, but we have strict privacy laws here so you can’t photograph people and their property without their permission. You also cannot harass wildlife and there are laws about feeding wild monkeys, raccoons, alligators and some endangered birds.
Laws vary by state but it looked to me like Illinois is more concerned law enforcement is going to spy on someone rather than protect it’s citizens.
Perhaps asking your congressmen/senators?

we also have extremely liberal gun laws here so I think someone would have eventually just taken it down if he persisted. It was unsettling to say the least.

amended to add you may be in Missouri, and it looks like there are not many drone laws there. I know people love to criticize laws and regulations however there are so many idiots out there.

[Tybee]

Our neighbor asked us one day if we had seen the drone from the kids (20's) across the street. We had not, but I guess they were flying it over our pasture. We hate those things. Then, a couple of months later, this thing showed up under the melted snow--I think it was the drone.

Oh well.

[Alan]

This past summer my wife and I were sitting by the pool when one appeared over us and hovered. I stepped into the house, retrieved my air rifle and began to aim it at the drone. It promptly flew away and we never saw it again.

[Williamsmith]

An air rifle drone downing would get the point across about private air space. Of course, providing the owner had the balls to tag it with identifiers .....returning it in pieces would be even more enjoyable for me. “Oh I feel so bad....your drone must have fallen in my driveway and I backed out over it this morning with my truck. By the way, my new tire cost me $200 dollars....here’s the bill.”

[LDAHL]

Is there such a thing as "private air space"? If there is, how far does it extend? In my work, I often encounter people who are shocked to discover they don't actually own lake shoreline or stream banks that meet our State's (extremely liberal) definition of "navigable waterways". I wonder if there may be or will be similar law developed for close in air space. If government can condemn land or grant itself rights of way for highways, might the day come when they can establish "drone corridors" for various purposes?

[Williamsmith]

The FAA regulates drones. The most applicable to this scenario being that he drone cannot be operated near people or structures due to the risk of injuring people or damaging structures. There are some others regarding age, intoxication, etc.

Many states have enacted their own legislation. Pennsylvania has not but it has certainly tried. They tried to make a law that drones can’t be used to surveil hunters and fishermen. Unusual huh? Well, we put our sportsman on a pedestal here. They didn’t want them harassed by bunnyhuggers. There was a bill that address surveillance of private persons. It failed because similar laws exist while not specifically applicable to drones....seemed to be sufficient to address the problem.

I would say that the issue of private airspace is going to be just an aside and that privacy and risk of injutpry or damage to property would be the way to complain. The airspace is regulated by the FAA. Me personally, I would declare the airspace above the property that I pay taxes on ....mine and make it a no drone zone. Enforced by me of course. Let someone else tell me different.

[LDAHL]

People have had the law tell them different for enforcing personal no-fly zones in a number of states. (https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/09/opini...nes/index.html) I certainly wouldn't want aerial vigilantes blazing away in my residential neighborhood. Our Sheriff's Department operates drones. I'm also guessing Amazon and Domino's will be operating fleets of the things in the near future. There will probably be more costly consequences for interfering with them than the local perverts. Apart from making them stand off at some safe distance, they seem inevitable as another of life's irritations. If local authorities can already operate extensive aerial photography programs to tax you more efficiently, and Google can take your image from space, its getting harder to argue for an expectation of privacy.

The only law I know of in my state is that you're not allowed to use drones as weapons platforms, and you need to keep them away from airports.

[ToomuchStuff]

Call the prosecutor and tell them you think this person is flying it while filming:
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/sho...een-indicted-(