Dad's Shoot Down of Vid Drone Cleared of Charges

Making vid of his little girls in backyard? Drone Op wants compensation.

[tangor]

A father who shot down a drone that was hovering over his family home in Kentucky has been cleared of all charges.

Dad-of-two William Merideth thought the quadcopter was spying on his daughters in their yard in Hillview, and blasted the gizmo out of the sky with a shotgun. That earned him the title "Drone Slayer" from pro-privacy quarters.

[theregister.co.uk...]

Aerial Varmint hunting now allowed?

[graeme_p]

I looks like he was lying about the height it was at: [arstechnica.com...]

[tangor]

One or the other is telling a whopper. :)

Birdshot at 272 feet is largely unlikely (at 150 feet it is very doable)

A discharge at 40-80 feet overhead and the shot falls back on the shooter.

RC aircraft of any kind (drones included, which are nothing more than other RC unmanned aerial vehicles) should show respect for the folks around them.

Somewhere, in the last few weeks, I've read about a drone buster (jammer) that breaks the control signal between the op and the vehicle, most of which return to home point upon loss of signal. Wonder how long it will be before such is standard installation on large expanse (think rich people) properties to kill unwanted intrusions?

[graeme_p]

So only rich people have privacy - great!


A jammer is better, but then people could use robot drones...

[engine]

I suspect that shooting down drones is going to become a pass time for some. Watch out Amazon, Google, Walmart, etc. There may be a new reason good not delivered, or delivered with buckshot!

[Hoople]

If he had downed it with a water jet or rock blast would the media have noticed?

We've become a society addicted to gunpowder centric sensationalism.