Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/08/florida-man-arrested-for-shooting-down-walmart-delivery-drones.html
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Ah, a responsible gun owner!
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This is a clear violation of Florida Man’s 1st and 2nd amendment rights.
Also, nice shot!
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Drones don’t have to be noisy. The Florida Man might not have noticed the drone at all if he hadn’t heard it. This video shows how one company tweaked their propellor blade shapes to change the kind of sound put out by their drones. The whole video I found interesting, but the part about quiet delivery drones starts at 14 minutes. Amazing Invention- This Drone Will Change Everything (youtube.com)
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leave the drones alone, people! sheesh.
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This is why, when you buy a property, that you make sure that you’re getting all the rights from the Earth’s core to at least the edge of atmosphere.
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“I then told him that he had struck a Walmart drone,” the Sheriff’s deputy said in the affidavit. “The defendant looked in disbelief and questioned, ‘Really?’”
So, if it wasn’t the drone he was looking for, he should have been told to move along.
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In Florida, of course. In a city? Does shooting a drone count as “standing your ground” in Florida? Does fear of surveillance count? How about “It’s thursday”?
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Air law for the decider!
75 feet does seem rather low.
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75 feet over your property? Seems like Walmart’s bad IMO.
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Gaining altitude is power-expensive for cargo drones, so the would-be delivery companies will probably ignore a few losses to avoid a case that lays out restrictions on how low they can be.
i.e. they’ll use the police and courts as a club to hassle Florida Man, but walk away if there’s a serious counter case heading that way.
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I love that finding out it wasn’t a surveillance drone spying on him, but rather mundane retail delivery drone, was the really surprising thing to Florida Man.
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Real aircraft have to have things like tail markings as well.
One could argue this is a case of self defense – even when unarmed, falling drones have killed people.
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Walmart outlines its new “You shot it, you bought it!” policy.
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Especially for a handgun. I would have thought that shotguns were the weapon of choice against these pests. (Plus the kinetic energy of shotgun pellets falling back to earth at terminal velocity is much less than that of a 9mm bullet.)
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Nah, you need at least to low earth orbit. It’s a nightmare thinking you’ve got the place to yourself, then the HOA is all up in your business about your space station, even if you do legit only park the transport shuttle there between 8pm and 6am.
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If Walmart were flying delivery drones 75 feet over my property, that would be what would motivate me to shoot a drone.
This really shows the problem with the laws around drones currently - they’re not allowed to fly that low over someone’s property, but you can’t identify a drone, and if you stop them, you’re in legal trouble because they’re treated the same as crewed aircraft (which is ridiculous). I guess all you can do is train birds to drop string into their rotors and pretend ignorance.
And ignore the law.
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A slingshot, a washer/nut, and several feet of fishing line should do it. If the blades catch the fishing line, it’s coming down.
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I was thinking more slingshot, weight and a strip of very fine netting (that would get caught in the rotors), but I’m guessing however you bring it down, it’s legally the same. (And I’m sure they have cameras to catch you doing it, so he was being surveilled by every drone over his property.)
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