You know normally I share the fun and the funny moments with you all. Unfortunately something happened to me Sunday evening that has actually left me somewhat traumatised.
I was sat in our back garden, minding my own business and strategising solutions to personal problems with ChatGPT. I heard what sounded like a lawn strimmer, thought a neighbour was doing some gardening, paid it no mind. The sound then sounded like it was behind me. Upstairs neighbour doing some work on a strimmer in his flat? Weird, but whatever. Again I ignored it.
The location of the noise seemed to shift again, prompting me to look around again to try and source it. For whatever reason I looked up and there it was, hovering right above me and my garden - a drone.
I have no idea whose it is or where it came from, though my upstairs neighbour has his suspecions. I’m seriously creeped out by it and I keep seeing a drone hovering in the sky in my mind’s eye. I feel unsafe and violated: what if it comes back again?
Has anyone else been bugged by these electronic pests? I find it absolutely baffling that we can’t blast them out of the sky with an air rifle or a garden hose when they invade our privacy
Bad news for the drone operator though: I’ve spend £40 on metallic reflective wind ornaments to bounce sunlight all over the shot if they try to film my garden again, and I’m going to get an air horn and some gender reveal smoke cannons for emergency escapes. I can’t shoot down or jam their craft, but I can make their recording my garden a living nightmare.
As tempting as it would be (and believe me, I have a bait catapult on my windowsill that I use to feed my pond fish on lazy days, as well as a garden full of gravel which would send a very strong message), it’s actually more illegal to attack a drone that is being used to spy on you than it is to spy on on your neighbours using a drone in the first place.
Drones are considered aircraft, so interfering with them, jamming them or intentionally pointing laser pointers/mirrors at them all goes down as interfering with an aircraft, which is a serious criminal offence that can land you up to five years in prison.
Spying on your neighbours with a drone goes down as a breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (most people just know it as GDPR, but to keep within the forum rules on abbreviations I had to spell it out ) and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. as well has harassment/stalking if it’s continuous. That’s only 6 months in the slammer and/or an unlimited fine. The police can seize a drone that’s being used to harass someone, but there’s nothing to stop that person then going out, buying another drone and repeating the process.
I wonder what @Stacy2 would think of her forum sister being harassed with a drone while carrying out perfectly legal works within the legal boundaries of her garden, that her not-even-direct neighbour is seemingly jealous about, and might be the culprit behind the drone?
I’m not saying he is responsible, I’m just saying it’s funny that the drone appeared out the back about twenty minutes after my upstairs neighbour and I were seen out the front
If you happened to have a long kids fishing pole with a net on the end and managed to bring it down .. do you imagine the owner/neighbour is actually going to come around/down to claim it back?
You could of just stayed watching and following it. Their battery life isn’t that long and it likely would of returned to the owner/neighbour automatically.
And I’m not sure if drones store their recording on a local card or if its recorded on the controller but if the former, no one would blame you for copying it and threatening to report it to the police if said owner/neighbour tried to claim it back.
Only problem is I don’t have a helicopter to launch a net from. Nor, probably, the legal approval
As for somebody retrieving a drone, it’s 50/50. My Mum was telling me apparently some guy flew one over their workplace, it lost signal and crashed on the roof. He created merry hell to get it back. Mum works in residential care.
I didn’t notice that bit .. just thought it looked cool, like some kind of Batman weapon.
Failing that, The Ukrainians have developed a smaller one .. give it a month and you’ll find it on Alibaba.
Oh it’s definitely cool, and as an ex-military brat, I’m all for military solutions… provided they’re legal for civil use
Nope, still illegal for civil use. I just checked, it goes down as interfering with an aircraft, as well as theft of property and criminal damage if the drone breaks upon crash landing.
I would say with 99% certainty that, if it is who we think it is, then he was spying on what me and my upstairs neighbour are doing in the garden. Basically, when we moved in we accepted that the end of the garden was where we thought it was, but we’ve since discovered that the end “boundary” of our garden is not the true boundary, and there is a fence beyond the fence that is the true boundary, according to the title deeds. So we’ve got clarification, paper trail etc and now we’re taking down the incorrect fence and taking the garden back to the true boundary (the abandoned land needs a lot of clearing) and making it used garden space again. That’s it! That’s literally all we’re doing. Even our direct neighbours know and are fine with it, but this pain in the backside is not!
Ohh it feels like privacy is a lot to ask for these days
Yes I know how it feels to be gongoozled. We live in an area of the West Midlands that’s always been a bit blighted by crime to put it lightly… we’ve lived here since the early 90s and barely a day has gone past when the old chopper is patrolling. We’ve been on the national news a few times it’s famous around here!!
It’s also around a busy road and the motorway, so there’s all the road accidents rescues as well. We’ve had the drones flying around and just assumed it was the police or rescue services trying to do their job, I guess it saves on helicopters anyway…
Also, we have the canal and it’s a bit of a nature spot with the dog walkers so they film and take pictures of the gardens. It’s just something we’re used to. That’s my perspective anyway.
I wouldn’t ignore you’re gut instinct, there are a lot of creeps about and a lot of voyeurism and filming people unawares seems to be the thing now so keep an eye on that neighbour. If something becomes a habit, and is flying very low it doesn’t sit right.
Don’t take my word for it, but I think it’s not supposed to be legal to fly drones over peoples property?I think it’s what I heard one of the vloggers say.
Oh don’t get me started on flight paths. I live right under the landing flight path for the air ambulances for the hospital so I’m used to being interrupted by the sound of propeller blades. I get jets flying over my back garden too. I also grew up near the M5 and do not miss it
It’s legal to fly over someone’s property, but it’s not legal to hover and film if they don’t consent (“uninvolved person”). So say for example, if you fly over someone’s garden on your way to record a local beauty spot and they happen to be hanging out their laundry, that’s unintentional and, though annoying for them, it is defensible for so long as you maintain a Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS) of your drone. If you’re hovering to see what your neighbours are doing though, that’s an invasion of privacy and harassment/stalking/voyeurism if you keep doing it, which is a criminal offence. It’s also a breach of the Drone Code not to maintain a VLOS (you won’t know if your drone hits someone). The police can (and do) seize drones that are being flown illegally, even if the public can’t.
Also, all drones are supposed to be registed with the Civil Authority Association, who wrote the Drone Code - the very same code that says “don’t film people who don’t consent”
If it was hovering and caused you concern, I would report it to the police. You’ll probably only get an incident number, but if it’s repeated (take pics?) They might start investigating.
For all you know it could have been an estate agent simply filming a property for sale, or a one off hobbyist learning the ropes.
I’m staying out of this thread apart from this comment because I’m slightly biased Anyone who says, I would shoot it down is uneducated on the law - the same rules that apply to a helicopter or aeroplane, apply to a drone. Gather any evidence, take videos and then report it.
Just be sure he’s not following the CAA rules before you do (because what people believe is the law and what you can do legally are often misunderstood and lead to misinformation, as shown on previous threads).
My partner has all the correct liability insurance (upto to £1m If I remember correctly). It’s such a shame, because people like these idiots spoil it for those who care and take it seriously
Believe me, if one more person tells me to read the CAA Drone Code, I will bloody throw it at them. I’ve read that thing so damn much since Sunday I can almost quote it, word for word!
Definitely not following CAA rules. I was an uninvolved person (you know what they are ) and didn’t give consent to filming over my property. Has been reported to the police. If nothing else, it starts the all-important paper trail. I’m going to shift my rear security camera slightly too so if it comes back, hopefully it will be picked up.
And you and me sister. I’ve spent more time going “no, you can’t shoot/whack a drone down”, “no, you can’t just film whatever you like, however you like and for as long as you like”, than I have doing bloomin’ blog work — and I don’t even own a drone!
Damn this sounds well creepy and yet unfair you’ve had to go to all this efforts to spend out on things to try block it from invading your privacy
Needless to say… I’d swat that bugger down regardlessly and class it as being on my property so is fair game whoever’s it is defo wouldn’t want to be having authorities find out they’ve been invading private space!
Plus in ways I’m sure you could flag it up with the police as a potential terrorist threat or something criminal…
Haha. That’s also the misconception, “it’s above my property, so I can do what I like, I’ll shoot it down”. Unfortunately you don’t own the airspace above your house. It’s the same when people say you can’t film me in public, unfortunately that’s legal and often falls under accidental inclusion. You are filmed thousands of times in public a year on CCTV and other devices.
Furthermore I blame the rule makers and the CAA. They change them so regularly. Every drone weight has different rules. It’s so confusing.
Any pilot who cares wouldn’t be doing this, unless it’s for aerial photos for selling a property which my partner has done on many occasions and has come across many angry people. He now wears a Go-Pro when doing such jobs for a little bit of protection and evidence - which again isn’t fair but is part of the world we live in.
) and breach of the Data Protection Act 2018. as well has harassment/stalking if it’s continuous. That’s only 6 months in the slammer and/or an unlimited fine. The police can seize a drone that’s being used to harass someone, but there’s nothing to stop that person then going out, buying another drone and repeating the process.
Anyone who says, I would shoot it down is uneducated on the law - the same rules that apply to a helicopter or aeroplane, apply to a drone. Gather any evidence, take videos and then report it.
