Woman allegedly persuades neighbor to shoot down legal drone
Technically Incorrect: In Oklahoma, a construction company is using a drone to inspect a property. A neighbor allegedly doesn't like that.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
They're just not friendly-looking, are they?
Now that drones have to be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration, everything's going to be fine, isn't it?
Ordinary people will look up to the sky and mutter, "Ah, yes. There flies a registered drone."
Or perhaps they'll still look up, fear that the drone is spying and shoot the darned thing down.
This is what allegedly occurred in Edmond, Oklahoma, on Wednesday.
"What we've been able to gather: The drone is registered with the FAA and was being used to survey a home for a construction project," Mark Opgrande, a spokesman for the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Office, told me.
He said a woman saw the drone and "thought some kids might be using it to spy on the neighbors." Kids, they're natural spies these days. Gadgets have made them that way.
The woman allegedly alerted another neighbor, who pulled out his gun and shot the drone down. There had been some issues with teens flying drones in the neighborhood in the past, Opgrande told me.
An investigation is ongoing, but the alleged shooter and the drone owner have, Opgrande told me, come to "a mutual understanding and worked out arrangements to repair the drone."
This isn't the first time a drone has been shot out of the sky by someone who suspects nefarious intent.
In Kentucky, a man feared a drone was taking pictures of his daughters as they sunbathed. So he pulled out his gun and the drone fell to earth. He was charged with wanton endangerment and criminal mischief. A judge dismissed those charges.
Opgrande told Fox 25 that if you're going to fly a drone, you should warn the neighbors. Who's going to do that, though?
Given that private drones have been interfering with the dousing of wildfires, as well as spooking commercial pilots on a seemingly daily basis, it seems that drone culture still veers toward the carefree.
Oklahoma has already seen one case, last week, in which drones were being used for espionage purposes.
The BBC reported that an Oklahoma sex worker pleaded guilty to a charge of lewdness. A local do-gooder (or do-badder, depending on your perspective) had sent up a drone to film the sex worker, who was in a car with a man. She was jailed for a year.
These days, it's a difficult dilemma for Oklahomans when they hear a buzzing sound in the air: Friend or foe? Shoot first and ask questions later may not, however, be the best solution.