Man Shoots Down Neighbor's Drone, Ordered to Pay Damages

On the list of things you probably shouldn't do if you're annoyed at a neighbor, we would probably place "shoot down his drone" somewhere toward the top and "fling a water balloon into his backyard" toward the bottom. Go figure, you can probably get into a bit more trouble doing the former than the latter, especially if you're trying to take out the guy's expensive flying machine with a shotgun.

As Ars Technica reports, a Modesto, California man was apparently a little freaked out that his neighbor's drone—a homemade one, at that—was possibly some kind of Big Brother-like device sent from the government to spy on his activities. So, said neighbor did exactly what you'd expect someone to do when faced with such a dilemma. After around 3.5 minutes of flight time, the drone got its first (and last) experience getting hit with the contents of a shotgun. One shot, one drone.

The two neighbors proceeded to exchange a few email messages about the situation. As you might expect, it didn't go all that well.

"It was nice to meet you and your son. I wish it could have been under different circumstances, but I have to give credit to the McBay school of marksmanship," wrote the drone-owning neighbor, Eric Joe, according to Ars. "Still, I'm pretty bummed that I just built this hexacopter only to have it shot down. Also, it was a little disconcerting to know that the spread of the birdshot/buckshot was in my direction. In any case, I had a chance to test the components of the downed hexacopter. Good news is that the more expensive components (on the inside of the frame) are in tact. Stuff on the outside of the frame took the most damage."

"With all do [sic] respect $700 dollars seems excessive. Perhaps in SF it's normal for folks to have drones hovering over their property but we live in the country for privacy. I will be willing to split the cost with you but next time let us know your testing surveillance equipment in our area. I'll drop a check of [sic] this afternoon," replied the shotgun-toting neighbor, Brett McBay.

Joe didn't back down on his request for reimbursement for the drone's damages, while McBay insisted the matter was closed (sans any payment whatsoever).

Ultimately, a small claims court found in Joe's favor and awarded him $850 for the bits and pieces of his drone harmed by McBay's shotgunning. McBay, however, has yet to pay that amount, and Joe is likely to continue pursuing legal action until he ponies up.

About David Murphy

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David Murphy got his first real taste of technology journalism when he arrived at PC Magazine as an intern in 2005. A three-month gig turned to six months, six months turned to occasional freelance assignments, and he later rejoined his tech-loving, mostly New York-based friends as one of PCMag.com's news contributors. For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).

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