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65-year-old says she took out drone with one shot

Technically Incorrect: A drone is hovering near the house of Hollywood actor Robert Duvall. A neighbor thinks this isn't a good thing.

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


The temptation to shoot it down may be powerful for some.

Getty Images

Not everyone believes technology should hover over them.

Some people still believe peace and privacy are the American way.

Jennifer Youngman, for example, believes there's a time and a place for drones, but it is not over her house while she's cleaning her shotguns.

Or perhaps it was the perfect time.

Youngman, a 65-year-old resident of Fauquier County, Virginia, says she was ready when the drone drifted over the house of her neighbor -- Hollywood actor Robert Duvall -- and then over hers.

As the Fauquier Times reports, she said that two men were responsible for flying the drone and she was responsible for bringing it down with just one shot.

"They were going a little too fast and they went over my airspace," she told the Times. "I had my .20-gauge there, so I put two 71/2 birdshot shells in it, and there you are."

"There you are" is polite for "I shot that darned thing down, noisy old beast that it is."

Surely, you might think, the young men reacted.

"They were kinda mad," said Youngman, "but they knew to not come on my property."

Sgt. James Hartman of the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office told me: "No report or complaint has been filed with this agency regarding this alleged incident."

Youngman wouldn't the first to shoot down a drone that they claimed was interfering with their peace.

In Kentucky, a man proudly did the same thing. He, however, ended up in court. A local judge then decided he had every right to blast the drone out of the sky.

The judge chose not to believe flight data provided by the drone's owner that purportedly showed that the drone was flying far higher than the shooter had claimed. That drone's owner, though, has now filed a federal claim that the drone's flight didn't represent trespass.

There's no consistent law about how much of the airspace above your house you actually own or at least deserve to have free of flying mechanical objects.

This may be a relief for Amazon, as it begins to deliver your moisturizer and hair trimmer by motorized buzzard.

In time, one suspects that laws will need to be created so that people know where they stand, and where they fly. The law, though, is painfully slow in keeping up with technology. In the meantime, look for more buzzing, more shots, and more mechanical objects plummeting to earth.

Update, 7:32 a.m. PT : Comment was added from sheriff's office.