General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSo This Is How It Begins: Guy Refuses to Stop Drone-Spying on Seattle Woman
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/05/so-this-is-how-it-begins-guy-refuses-to-stop-drone-spying-on-seattle-woman/275769/Back in October, Alexis wrote a piece asking what rights do we have with regard to the air above our property. Walk onto someone's lawn and you're trespassing; fly over it in a helicopter and you're in the clear -- "the air is a public highway," the Supreme Court declared in 1946. But what about the in-between space? Does the availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (aka drones, aka UAVs) throw a wrench in the old legal understandings?
Well, here's where the rubber meets the road for this abstract line of questioning. The Capitol Hill Seattle Blog is reporting a complaint it received from a resident in the Miller Park neighborhood. She writes:
This afternoon, a stranger set an aerial drone into flight over my yard and beside my house near Miller Playfield. I initially mistook its noisy buzzing for a weed-whacker on this warm spring day. After several minutes, I looked out my third-story window to see a drone hovering a few feet away. My husband went to talk to the man on the sidewalk outside our home who was operating the drone with a remote control, to ask him to not fly his drone near our home. The man insisted that it is legal for him to fly an aerial drone over our yard and adjacent to our windows. He noted that the drone has a camera, which transmits images he viewed through a set of glasses. He purported to be doing "research". We are extremely concerned, as he could very easily be a criminal who plans to break into our house or a peeping-tom.
The site adds, "The woman tells us she called police but they decided not to show up when the man left."
eShirl
(18,479 posts)Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)and would be MUCH safer.
On edit:
http://www.redsgear.com/p-12384-barnett-cobra-slingshot-16043.aspx?catargetid=1875085496&"cagpspn=pla"&gclid=COGZt9DSlbcCFRCe4Aod0HMAWg
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)Get a Wrist Rocket.Get some Ball Bearings. Wear Neoprene gloves when
handling the ball bearings. Practice, practice, practice. Extrapolate from this point.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Several have said garden hose or powerwasher - even better idea.
TalkingDog
(9,001 posts)Or possibly a squirrel, raccoon or possum.
Our well doesn't have much pressure. But paintballs in a wrist rocket sounds like a winner.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)harder to miss.
Robb
(39,665 posts)Bullets fired into the air come down eventually, y'know.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)even better choice.
eShirl
(18,479 posts)Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)Kites in the nearby schoolyard go over houses sometimes, too.
Probably some of these could be outfitted with cameras so I'm not sure what can be done about something like this.
I suppose it's still illegal in most places -if not all- to be spying on someone but how would you know if someone was doing that? Maybe it would be considered 'causing a public disturbance' if you harassed someone by flying too close to their home.
Just because the airspace is public doesn't mean you have a right to hover and record.
[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]
FSogol
(45,446 posts)Buy a wrist rocket (a type of high powered sling shot) and see how many 1/2" nuts it takes to bring it down.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2zrKb3W_Jig/TKDiPyeu6SI/AAAAAAAAA7w/PSIiJwRfaAI/s1600/Wrist+Rocket.jpg
They also need to go talk to the Police Captain at the local Station. A peeping tom is a peeping tom no matter whether he uses technology or not. The officers might not get that, but the Captain will.
randome
(34,845 posts)Of course now they have to find the guy again. Although it could have been that he was just testing out his new toy.
The woman said it was 'a few feet' away. Could have been an exaggeration. Maybe it wasn't.
It's not necessarily a peeping tom incident but it wouldn't hurt to remind him -again, if they can find him- that there are laws against spying on people.
[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]
Orrex
(63,172 posts)Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Fill in the blank....
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Except I'd go with Paintballs and not steel.
Safety first.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)Sort of AA on the drone
Lurker Deluxe
(1,036 posts)Are your neighbors spying on you with a drone?
Tired of that camera perched over your swimming pool?
Our service provides you with the new "anti drone drone". Fully automated and hassle free, simply set up our new self contained launch pad and carry this handy laser pointer with you at all times. A simple press of a button and a point of the laser and our drone goes to work destroying the intruder. With the optional video accessory you can film the event and our website has a score card to keep track of your "kills".
11 Bravo
(23,926 posts)hunter
(38,302 posts)One could gather up quite a collection of downed spy drones.
siligut
(12,272 posts)They had ballistic boobs, but lasers would have worked as well.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)Because I had a peeper one time. Well, technically. I'd just moved in the night before and didn't have the windows covered yet. No fence up either, of course. The chows were so stressed and exhausted that I'd given them a sedative for the night and they were out like a light. But I heard a tapping on the window of the living room where we'd crashed, and when I looked in that direction I saw the ugliest mug imaginable pressed tightly against the pane. Think Don Knotts after being kicked by a mule and you'll know what I mean.
I screamed instinctively which woke the dogs and they started their noise, so the guy jumped back. When I ran outside to confront the old coot, leaving the dogs inside, he was shaking like a leaf. He claimed he only wanted to talk to me and ask if I was going to have a yard sale since there were still various items on my porch. Which was probably true or else why did he announce himself. I spoke to him rather sharply and warned him that if he ever came around again, I'd let the chows have their way with him. He toddled away as fast as he could. Having decided he must be a bit dotty I never called the police and the guy never came back, of course. But it was still scary and I had bad dreams for awhile.
But yeah, I like the paintball solution best for electronic spies.
Shankapotomus
(4,840 posts)DCBob
(24,689 posts)Locrian
(4,522 posts)ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)Then....whoops, I accidentally stepped on it and crushed it when it came down. Then I'd tell asswipe he can't come on my property to pick it up.
Wonder what the shitbag operating it would cry about then.
Ganja Ninja
(15,953 posts)Then just reel it in and keep it.
SlipperySlope
(2,751 posts)The last few weekends I've been flying a quadcopter like this with my daughters. We've flown it in our neighborhood and in some open space.
It is basically a radio-controlled toy but light-years ahead of where radio-controlled toys were when I was a child.
This model doesn't contain a camera but it is strong enough to lift a small one. For fun I had been thinking about velcroing a camera like this to the bottom so we could record a "birds eye view" of our flights.
With just a little more electronics (and maybe one step up to a bigger quadcopter) we could add a live transmission of what the copter was seeing, and maybe even try flying it via FPV (first person view).
All of the above is what hobbyists can do today using a handful of off the shelf parts. And when I look at what I'm doing with my daughters I just see a dad having fun with his kids and hopefully teaching them some knowledge about aerodynamics and electronics. I see nothing I'm doing that is even close to what should be banned.
I agree there is some line that shouldn't be crossed with these things. But putting a video camera on a radio controlled aircraft is not something new, and isn't something inherently suspicious. It is just that the technology is getting better and cheaper and more in reach of the average hobbyist.
Heywood J
(2,515 posts)rgbecker
(4,820 posts)Drew Richards
(1,558 posts)rgbecker
(4,820 posts)Noticed they were selling a remote controled helicopter with video camera for $99.99.
WTF?