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Well after reading several 'scary' threads the past few months, I now have one of my own. I had shown the attached photo of some night shots I did in my city the other night, to a friend who owns a development. It's essentially a really cool shopping area with beautiful craftsman style homes that would look like something out of the movie Truman show. She loved the night pics I did downtown, and we talked about doing some day and night pics of her development. So tonight my wife and I parked just inside the school parking lot next to it.
After about 10 minutes a young lady walks by on her cell phone and my wife says hi to her. The lady kept walking. A few minutes later a cop pulls up with his blues on. Turns out the lady was the principal of the school doing some late work there on a Saturday night. Instead of initiating a conversation with my wife or I, to maybe ask what we were doing, what did she do? She called the cops.
Believe me, the cop was a punk. He jumps out of his car tells me to "land that thing and walk over here"! I did so, and I asked the officer what the problem was. He asked for my wife's and my ID, and said that we were trespassing on school property and said we were not supposed to be there. He told us the principal said we were "photographing her school, and neighbors were alarmed".
I told him we had permission, and then he asked for it in writing. I told him it was verbal, and gave him my friends number. About this time another police car pulls up, then he quickly pulls to the other end of the parking lot where I saw the lady principal standing there far away from us. The two cops get on the 'radio' and after a few minutes the cop gets out and says we were not supposed to be on school property and that he "could carry us in if the principal wants to press charges".
I won't bore you with many more details, but I calmly told the officer that I was not photographing her school, I was just barely in the parking lot and needed a wide-open space to take off and land to video the development. He asked me "why I wanted to film at night," and I told him "because it makes beautiful shots, here I'll show you," but he shook his head no.
After a few more minutes he comes back giving us our ID, and tells us to leave before he arrests us for trespassing. I told him that I had seen no signs saying no trespassing, and I thought that public school parking lots were OK, and he said absolutely not, "you can easily get arrested for that."
Although this seems like a story non-related to the actual drone, and had to do with me being somewhere I shouldn't have, believe me, it was the drone. I told the officer that we had been a couple of blocks down videoing late the night before, and no one said anything...and that there were some long-border teenagers skating on the school parking lot. My wife squeezed my arm and dragged me to get in the car before the cop changed his mind.
That's pretty much the story, but friends we need to prepare ourselves for more of this crap. The mass hysteria is just now beginning. And it's a shame. We have much bigger problems in this world.
After about 10 minutes a young lady walks by on her cell phone and my wife says hi to her. The lady kept walking. A few minutes later a cop pulls up with his blues on. Turns out the lady was the principal of the school doing some late work there on a Saturday night. Instead of initiating a conversation with my wife or I, to maybe ask what we were doing, what did she do? She called the cops.
Believe me, the cop was a punk. He jumps out of his car tells me to "land that thing and walk over here"! I did so, and I asked the officer what the problem was. He asked for my wife's and my ID, and said that we were trespassing on school property and said we were not supposed to be there. He told us the principal said we were "photographing her school, and neighbors were alarmed".
I told him we had permission, and then he asked for it in writing. I told him it was verbal, and gave him my friends number. About this time another police car pulls up, then he quickly pulls to the other end of the parking lot where I saw the lady principal standing there far away from us. The two cops get on the 'radio' and after a few minutes the cop gets out and says we were not supposed to be on school property and that he "could carry us in if the principal wants to press charges".
I won't bore you with many more details, but I calmly told the officer that I was not photographing her school, I was just barely in the parking lot and needed a wide-open space to take off and land to video the development. He asked me "why I wanted to film at night," and I told him "because it makes beautiful shots, here I'll show you," but he shook his head no.
After a few more minutes he comes back giving us our ID, and tells us to leave before he arrests us for trespassing. I told him that I had seen no signs saying no trespassing, and I thought that public school parking lots were OK, and he said absolutely not, "you can easily get arrested for that."
Although this seems like a story non-related to the actual drone, and had to do with me being somewhere I shouldn't have, believe me, it was the drone. I told the officer that we had been a couple of blocks down videoing late the night before, and no one said anything...and that there were some long-border teenagers skating on the school parking lot. My wife squeezed my arm and dragged me to get in the car before the cop changed his mind.
That's pretty much the story, but friends we need to prepare ourselves for more of this crap. The mass hysteria is just now beginning. And it's a shame. We have much bigger problems in this world.
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