Irate Neighbor Said I was 'perving' on her!

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3 Days ago, I flew my P4A from my doorstep to take a few photos of this cloud formation (see below). I was airborne for less than 10 minutes, I didn't take any video (only about 5 still shots) and the drone flew at about 20 meters on take off and then averaged about 80 meters high during the flight time.

Within half an hour someone I don't know, who lives 600 meters away, down another road was at my door, not keeping her 2m social distance and angrily tell me that 1) i knew her and knew her family and knew where she lived - on a camping site near me, 2) she liked to sunbathe in her garden and that I was breaching her privacy and 3) that next time I wanted to fly over her house, I must ask her permission. She did not say how that might be achieved, nor did she offer me any contact details.

I replied: 1) I did not know her, her family or where she lived or about the camping site. 2) I was not aware of flying over her house, because I didn't know where it was and that the drone was probably too high to see it (or her) anyway and 3) I rarely go out these days, I'm over 60, with some medical issues and I was just taking the air (and to the air) on a nice day. She became more aggressive and I finally asked her to leave, after telling her 3 times to keep her social distance. FYI, I now know the location of the property and had seen it, but didn't know it was a camping site or who owned it.

I called the Gardi (Irish police) to complain about her intrusion. They took no sides and said that it's understandable that a woman might feel vulnerable about being photographed sunbathing. After a long discussion (at least 45 minutes), they said that I knew more about drone laws than them, and that they would call her. They did and came back saying she thought I was "creepy" and probably keen to see her sunbathing.

Anyway...I have spoken to 4 people who know her and based on the (same) information they all gave me, followed up by calling the county council planning permission enforcement department. It turns out that there have been 2 complaints about illegal building work on property in the area of her camp site (they couldn't be specific without a zip code (Eircode) ). They said that they are still in the process of following up the 2nd one. The property is heavily secluded at ground level by concrete block and it is impossible to see inside it from the ground. But...not from the air, obviously.

Having spoken to someone else, just now, who has had bad dealings with her, I'm satisfied that she was calling me a pervert to cover up her non-compliant operations. It may even be that she's got people staying there now, against Irish lock-down rules. This has kept me awake for 2 nights, but I promise her that I'll have the last laugh.

DJI_0010-Edit-2.jpg
 
Just a suggestion, I once had a man come over and was a bit upset that I may have been filming him. I simply showed him the video from my flight and when he realized that my focus was on other things and he was only accidentally caught in a second of the video that showed he was just barely visible on the video the conversation changed to a tense one to a pleasant one.
 
? Nice photo. Luckily enough neighbors have watched and talked drones with me, they have spread the word. That will all change with remote ID though. Anyone with a phone will know, but that’s OK with me. It’s a New world and some people can’t take it. Too Bad. You handled it well. ?
 
Just a suggestion, I once had a man come over and was a bit upset that I may have been filming him. I simply showed him the video from my flight and when he realized that my focus was on other things and he was only accidentally caught in a second of the video that showed he was just barely visible on the video the conversation changed to a tense one to a pleasant one.

I wasn't filming at any point. I took 5 photos (all virtually identical to the one in my OP). I showed it to her, as I had put it on Facebook, and I accessed it with my phone. She was not impressed and reiterated her demand (and I use that word due to her tone of voice) that I ask her permission before flying my drone near her house in the future.
 
? Nice photo. Luckily enough neighbors have watched and talked drones with me, they have spread the word. That will all change with remote ID though. Anyone with a phone will know, but that’s OK with me. It’s a New world and some people can’t take it. Too Bad. You handled it well. ?

Thanks for the compliment. I have now spoken to 4 people who actually know her. (She had insisted that I knew her, but I didn't). I know a lot more now though. No one I spoke to had a good word for her. Two people used very strong, colourful language about her and one called her a 'difficult ( Mod Removed Language) and advised me to tell her to ( Mod Removed Language) The general advice was that she is covering something up, probably breaches of lock-down rules and/or building regulation rules.
 
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Thanks for the compliment. I have now spoken to 4 people who actually know her. (She had insisted that I knew her, but I didn't). I know a lot more now though. No one I spoke to had a good word for her. Two people used very strong, colourful language about her and one called her a 'difficult (Mod Removed Language) and advised me to tell her to ( Mod Removed Language)off! The general advice was that she is covering something up, probably breaches of lock-down rules and/or building regulation rules.

So what I really try to Stress is how important it is to have some thing really smart and sensible to say to Nutters .

One of those things is that you Drone is available for Search and Rescue , what i do is post it on the neighborhood watch every week..

It also really helps if you drone looks like it can do some search and rescue: Spot Light / Wet Suit and Hook all can play and important role.

So you dont need to tell anyone to tell anyone off, just put them in there place by letting them now your training for search and rescue as we get a lot of calls for lost kids and cats, older adults , dogs, chimps, ... There rebuttal will be few.

I firmly believe that if every drone had Search and Rescue Ability the Public would have seen us a bit Differently.
We should all be ready or on call should there be some help needed.


There is no reason ever to be ashamed of flying over a camp site when you let them know because you can reach them your drone is available for Search and Rescue ,
I dont think you understand how powerful that is.

Phantomrain.org
Gear to fly in Extreme Weather for Search an Rescue.
 
? Nice photo. Luckily enough neighbors have watched and talked drones with me, they have spread the word. That will all change with remote ID though. Anyone with a phone will know, but that’s OK with me. It’s a New world and some people can’t take it. Too Bad. You handled it well. ?
Anyone that knows of the app with a phone.
I really don’t think that many will even know it exists.
 
So what I really try to Stress is how important it is to have some thing really smart and sensible to say to Nutters .

One of those things is that you Drone is available for Search and Rescue , what i do is post it on the neighborhood watch every week.

Some of your reply sounds like a sales pitch. ;) But, it's of no use to me, as I live 3km from the coastguard station and 4km from the lifeboat station for the area. Both are well-equipped with very serious drones for search and rescue.
 
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3 Days ago, I flew my P4A from my doorstep to take a few photos of this cloud formation (see below). I was airborne for less than 10 minutes, I didn't take any video (only about 5 still shots) and the drone flew at about 20 meters on take off and then averaged about 80 meters high during the flight time.

Within half an hour someone I don't know, who lives 600 meters away, down another road was at my door, not keeping her 2m social distance and angrily tell me that 1) i knew her and knew her family and knew where she lived - on a camping site near me, 2) she liked to sunbathe in her garden and that I was breaching her privacy and 3) that next time I wanted to fly over her house, I must ask her permission. She did not say how that might be achieved, nor did she offer me any contact details.

I replied: 1) I did not know her, her family or where she lived or about the camping site. 2) I was not aware of flying over her house, because I didn't know where it was and that the drone was probably too high to see it (or her) anyway and 3) I rarely go out these days, I'm over 60, with some medical issues and I was just taking the air (and to the air) on a nice day. She became more aggressive and I finally asked her to leave, after telling her 3 times to keep her social distance. FYI, I now know the location of the property and had seen it, but didn't know it was a camping site or who owned it.

I called the Gardi (Irish police) to complain about her intrusion. They took no sides and said that it's understandable that a woman might feel vulnerable about being photographed sunbathing. After a long discussion (at least 45 minutes), they said that I knew more about drone laws than them, and that they would call her. They did and came back saying she thought I was "creepy" and probably keen to see her sunbathing.

Anyway...I have spoken to 4 people who know her and based on the (same) information they all gave me, followed up by calling the county council planning permission enforcement department. It turns out that there have been 2 complaints about illegal building work on property in the area of her camp site (they couldn't be specific without a zip code (Eircode) ). They said that they are still in the process of following up the 2nd one. The property is heavily secluded at ground level by concrete block and it is impossible to see inside it from the ground. But...not from the air, obviously.

Having spoken to someone else, just now, who has had bad dealings with her, I'm satisfied that she was calling me a pervert to cover up her non-compliant operations. It may even be that she's got people staying there now, against Irish lock-down rules. This has kept me awake for 2 nights, but I promise her that I'll have the last laugh.

View attachment 118877
I had a similar problem with 3 NFL cheerleaders that told me they liked to sunbathe sans swimsuit. They feared that I was photographing them with my drone. I assured them that was not the case and that I would always maintain an altitude of at least 10 meters when flying over their property in the future. All is good now.
 
I had a similar problem with 3 NFL cheerleaders that told me they liked to sunbathe sans swimsuit. They feared that I was photographing them with my drone. I assured them that was not the case and that I would always maintain an altitude of at least 10 meters when flying over their property in the future. All is good now.

Well, unfortunately for me, my situation wasn't just in my head. Although, I did (genuinely) say to the Police Officer...I've seen her up close, why would I want to see her from 30 feet high?
 
Had the same issue with a neighbor. I was out taking pictures of the neighbor right next to me for him. She thought I was spying on her and called the police. They talked to her and came over and talked to me. I showed them my flight path, end of story. One of the officers said he flew drones and his parting words were enjoy flying your drone. She moved out 6 months later an the entire neighborhood rejoiced. My other neighbors don't have any problems and if I were to hover over one of them I would inform them why I was doing it. I do fly over many times but I'm trucking out and back .
 
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