Neighbor threatened to kill me for flying my phantom...

[louforgiveno]

 

[cshaw]

I conceal carry and wear a Gopro every time I fly just because of situations like this.

God bless America and your crazy gun laws

 

[snerd]

God bless America and your crazy gun laws

Please read back and see post #117. Thanks.

 

[nirvine88]

Seems there needs to be some sort of psych test before owning a lethal weapon. This guy clearly had mental health issues. Feel sorry for his poor wife.

 

[MikeTess]

I was recently flying at a large park field in NY and some old lady comes up to me and says "that's one of them spy drones I see on TV isn't it?" I just laughed. You can't fix stupid.

 

[jumper]

Lacking photographs, I'd really like to see scaled diagrams of these incidents. It doesn't have to be super accurate but maybe the location of the closest Walmart could be indicated and it would be helpful to denote which permit (CCW, OC etc) all the players hold and perhaps the types of weapon and maybe a mag count. Most threads of this type usually have a nice diagram and some even go as far to give a sartorial description of everyone. I'm really not sure if there is such a thing as 'too much info' .

Being a Canuck, this just helps to paint a better picture for me.

 

[fhagan02]

Yes this is a big fear of mine. Glad you're ok. Got complaints from my neighbors also. Lesson learned you just can't fly even remotely close to anyone's house much less over their property. Be it 50 meters or 120 meters. Whether it's "legal"or not.

When I fly in a public park I now always bring a GoPro fitted to the front of my hat. I keep it recording from the moment I get out of the car to the moment I pack up and get back in. Video and audio evidence can quickly make your side of the story vs. their side of the story.....one story to a police officer or judge.

 

[alowprofile]

People are insane. Show them this to scare them off:

http://gizmodo.com/in-this-short-film-your-drone-really-is-trying-to-kill-1708361001

I am currently in the process of filing a restraining order and the city is pursuing a felony/misdemeanor against one of my neighbors that I have never met before, before they approached me, brandished a weapon, and threatened to kill me for flying my phantom too close to their house. You would think I live in a dangerous neighborhood, but it is quite the opposite in one of the most expensive zip codes (socal).

I am posting this here as a warning. When the incident happened, I was with a few friends. Had I been alone, who knows what could have transpired.

I am not advocating carrying weapons, but I would suggest that you think about protecting yourself every time you fly.

I hesitated in posting this because I didn't want to worry anyone, but I convinced myself that I would want to know, so I am sharing.

Here are a few details of the incident for those that are curious:

Taking off from directly in front of my condo. It is a crowded neighborhood, housing with hardly any yards, in a small-hills area. I am flying looking at brush and open land, some of the only open land near my condo, at about the middle of a hill, on top of which is a house. I am at approximately 60-80 feet in the air (AGL), much lower than the height of the house. I then start to go straight up at about 3-5mph to a height of about 300 feet. During this I pass by the house on the hill at about 30-50 yards from the closest side of the house (the house was at about 100-120ft). Once at that height, I hit the RTH function to show my friends how it can, well, RTH. As it gets above us and starts to descend, a pickup truck pulls up with a man and a woman getting out. They start approaching us spouting nonsense about taking video through their windows. Privacy this, illegal that, "you cannot fly over residential!", etc. After a few minutes of back and forth, they say they are going to call the police. I invited them to and welcomed them to stay and wait. This was mostly a discussion with the wife. They were an older couple, late 50's early 60's. While this was happening the husband had pulled out a steak knife and had it in his hands. He was a safe distance away at this point, but it was borderline time to run in the other direction. Shortly later, they started walking back to their truck and the husband pulled the truck closer to my condo attempting to run over the drone with his car. He aggressively sped up and nearly ran over my girlfriend who picked up the drone because she saw what he was going to be doing. He then veered at her, and she had to duck between cars. I was too far away to do anything about the drone sitting on the ground at the time, but I am thankful she had enough foresight and courage to do all of this without really being in much danger. It was more a show of aggression from the husband driving the truck.

And as the grand finale, as they are backing out of my condo complex, I am at the entrance to the condo complex standing next to the drivers side door, and he reaches in the glove box, pulls out a gun, and says to his wife, "why don't we just kill him?". At this point she was erratic trying to get her husband to leave, covering the gun with her jacket and pulling his arm down. I could tell she was horrified that he was doing it, and at that point, they left and we immediately called the police.

As you can imagine, their story of what happened didn't match mine at all. Luckily I had half a dozen witnesses to the entire thing, otherwise I might be just someone pissed off at the justice system stuck in a he said she said situation. Instead, he is facing a possible felony/misdimeanor and restraining order.

The scariest thing about this is, I wasn't even aware that I had done anything even remotely wrong. When it all started to go down, I was in complete shock that someone was even remotely upset, let alone wanting to kill me. I felt as if I was a safe distance away from all houses when I was flying. With over 10 years of flying under my belt, I have a good idea of what a safe distance is.

So the lesson is, take special care, try to diffuse the situation, and always protect yourself. I hope I am the only person this ever happens to.

 

[Apparition]

Lacking photographs, I'd really like to see scaled diagrams of these incidents. It doesn't have to be super accurate but maybe the location of the closest Walmart could be indicated and it would be helpful to denote which permit (CCW, OC etc) all the players hold and perhaps the types of weapon and maybe a mag count. Most threads of this type usually have a nice diagram and some even go as far to give a sartorial description of everyone. I'm really not sure if there is such a thing as 'too much info' .

Being a Canuck, this just helps to paint a better picture for me.

True Arfcom fashion MS Paint

 

[Chicago1]

Taking off from directly in front of my condo. It is a crowded neighborhood, housing with hardly any yards

I would say the area is a candidate for a "no fly" zone. If you seriously evaluate the environment, there are many, many, many things to hit if anything goes wrong! I would not fly there - just because of all the structures.

 

[Seadog]

Just a minor point of confusion. First part of post the OP said wife last part of post said girlfriend ? Now if his wife lets him have a girlfriend then I want to know if she has a sister. LOL On another note comment made about policeman living on one side of house and Veteran with PTSD on the other side and neither complain. umm Does that imply that Veterans with PTSD are unstable and ready to fly off the handle at a moments notice. I'm a Vet with PTSD and a quadcopter owner. Every time I fly it I freak out. LOL.

 

[PhotoGuyAaron]

Oh boy I pray someone tries that with me.

You must have a pistol permit then

 

[GoodnNuff]

The OP was almost just killed by a whackjob but you think people should just lay down and die if someone brandishes a gun and threatens to take their life. Yeah, that's so altruistic man, you've really made a fool out of us cowboys for choosing to protect ourselves instead. Great play, now head on back to wonderland!

To people like this there is no grey, only black and white. You either fight or you "lay down and die." They don't think in terms of de-escalating, walking away, compromising, or finding resolution.
They make good warriors.
They can make troublesome neighbors.

It is interesting when people tell others how well protected they are with the gun in their waistband, glove box, under the seat, etc., They talk with bravado about how they'd use it in this scenario or that one, how they brandished it here or there to diffuse (cause the other guy is never armed) a situation. They tell stories of how dangerous it is "out there" and assure us that they are just protecting themselves from "the paranoid ones."
The irony.

 

[djphantom2015]

The least they should do is take the gun of that nut. You should be more cautious. I was flying to film a pier in Florida and although it was early in the morning and most people were not bothered at all, but curios and excited, one fisherman said to his friend that if that thing flies over his house he will shoot it done. I just moved away and ignored him.

 

[djphantom2015]

Yes this is a big fear of mine. Glad you're ok. Got complaints from my neighbors also. Lesson learned you just can't fly even remotely close to anyone's house much less over their property. Be it 50 meters or 120 meters. Whether it's "legal"or not.

When I fly in a public park I now always bring a GoPro fitted to the front of my hat. I keep it recording from the moment I get out of the car to the moment I pack up and get back in. Video and audio evidence can quickly make your side of the story vs. their side of the story.....one story to a police officer or judge.

So if someone angry comes along and shoots you down you can always (if you survive) post it on youtube and collect millions of clicks! (obviously joking )

 

[spankybear]

Shall we also bring religion in to this thread... since it has been derailed

 

[Zigs]

We've become so self deluded in America we increasingly believe everyone wants to take what we own, look at our naked bodies

 

[Seadog]

They want to look at my naked body they better have a wide wide angle camera.

 

[Zigs]

For a country that claims to be the "home of the brave and land of the free," I'm becoming appalled at the fear, hysteria and subsequent stupidity that seems to be playing out. I rack it up to self -- importance, need, expectation, satisfaction and ultimately delusion. We can all give a little. On every side of the issue. I've found after sixty decades plus of life just exercising the communication to do so usually gets you down the road further than expected.

Z

 

[Iguana Dave]

[Moderator edit: off topic content removed. Take the gun talk elsewhere.]