If you call the cops there's a very good chance that by the time the get there the drone will be long gone or at least not over your property any more. The operator could be in a house or a car a few blocks or even miles away. Also very likely the cops won't know what to do. Will tell you its not their jurisdiction and to call the FAA. Best to go ahead and shoot it down but make sure you use a shotgun. I have had falling shot land on me from nearby duck hunters and it doesn't even hurt. Even if the cops charge you with something its probably not a very serious charge. Good chance they give you a summons to appear in court rather than make an arrest. If you have to go to court its very possible that the judge will be sympathetic if you tell your story well. If he does fine you the fine won't be very high and will be worth it to be known as the mighty drone hunter. Story didn't say how old the daughter was or whether she was sunbathing in the nude. Would be creepy if she was with Daddy at home.
My uncle once shot a guy running across a pasture after he had told him to keep out of his shop. Got off with discharging a gun within city limits. Depends on who you shoot and where.
As to the question of whether you own the airspace above your house: Obviously you can't claim ownership to the space 1000 or 2000 or more feet above your house. But if the existing zoning codes would allow you to build an additional story above your house or if it could be shown that there are precidents for easily changging or modifying those codes or that a waiver could reasonably be expected to be granted it follows that since you are only allowed to build on property that you own the by defacto you own at least the amount of space above your dwelling that would be utilized by the additional story. It is unlikely that laws governing the distane above your house that you are reasonably allowed to defend against invasion flying machinery is probably not codified in many places if any because when the existing statutes were enacted the possibility of drones couldn't be foreseen. Even though I am not an attorney and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night it would be fun to make that argument in a court of law.
No. I doubt the drone was that low or was endangering anybody. If it was shooting missiles at her, I might return fire. Otherwise I would have taken a photo and called the cops. if the guy was in the middle of his 500 acre farm, he might assume that it was targeting them. But he was in a residential neighborhood and waiting until it came over his property to shoot at it. People can't just claim that "someone was looking at my daughter" and take the law into their own hands like that. if you are that crazy, keep your daughter in the house.
You are wrong here amigo. If he was peeking through the fence you could board it up, or sneak up and poke him in the eye or build a bigger fence. BUT If the guy is going to resort to such tactics then the fathers must evolve as well. I'd be camped out in a drone blind.
You think I'm "wrong", but you would also end up on jail and I would not. It is not at all clear that the drone operators were peeping. They maintain they were doing something else. This may be just the guys excuse for opening fire. They have released video showing that they were flying much higher than he claimed and had only been in the air for 2 minutes. It also shows that the guy's lot was small and surrounded by other residential property.
The drone was 200 feet in the air and his original comment was that the backyard was a place his daughter sunbathes. He didn't say she was sunbathing at the time. Regardless, we need laws to adapt to the new reality of privately owned drones. The guy shooting the gun was definitely in the wrong.
