Neighbor Stole My Phantom on Easter.... (Not Yet Recovered)

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Easter afternoon, beautiful clear day, 12 sat locks, I decided to take my phantom on a GS Mission to practice a Search mission over some woods nearby my home. The mission was at 300ft up, 9 waypoints, Medium Speed and 15000ft in total distance. After recieving lock, I launch and it takes off for the mission, I quickly lose connectivity as I normally do due to my house being on the base of a hill.... A couple of minutes into the flight, very strong North wind gusts began, I get worried, the flight was North of me and the return trip is South. Waiting patiently, Dorothy doesn't come home.... moments later, I get connectivity, battery is in critical mode, the phantom, trying to make it home, begins to go down... Low Battery, looks like its going down hard. I recognize the house, all seems good, its going down in a clearing in a neighbors yard 4 lots to the north, and 1 street to the west of me, far enough away from the pool and clear from any trees. I jump in my truck, drive 2 streets over to recover the Phantom, pull up..... No phantom. Check the Find-My-Fantom the indicator shows right where I saw it go down. ???????? WTF. (continued)
 
The Find-My-Phantom isn't fool proof and could simply be the last location in the air before the battery died or signal was lost. It still could have drifted a bit during decent and your visual of it descending from a distance may have been off (long or short) a little. I would still check the trees, the pool, and other adjacent properties if possible and not assume it should be in that one exact spot. Maybe a property owner saw it come down and brought it inside the house. Did you knock on any doors and inquire?
 
The Find-My-Phantom isn't fool proof and could simply be the last location in the air before the battery died or signal was lost. It still could have drifted a bit during decent and your visual of it descending from a distance may have been off (long or short) a little. I would still check the trees, the pool, and other adjacent properties if possible and not assume it should be in that one exact spot. Maybe a property owner saw it come down and brought it inside the house. Did you knock on any doors and inquire?
My first flyaway the "find my phantom" showed me where I saw it in the air last, before connection lost. It could be anywhere so don't go over there w/ a pump shotgun or anything just yet.
 
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Like others mentioned, don't rely on the built in FMP feature. Others who have recovered theirs showed how is was way off from where t the FMP said it was.
Did you have your contact info on it? Good luck in your search.
 
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Critical components of my system are my phone number label, and my UAV Locator! It uses a combination of cell and GPS and is very accurate. I test it every time before I fly...
 
Offer a reward, or report it stolen to the police and let them ask him. Or just punch in the gps coordinates into your Truck's nav system and drive into the guy's livingroom to finish your search.
 
So, I hear you have a couple of P2V+ batteries for sale, like-new condition?

Just kidding (too soon?), have you brought this to the attention of the police? Being in custody of known stolen property is a crime. And although minor, I don't know of too many people who want the police in their business. May force the issue.
 
Ditto. Call the cops.
 
I don't understand some thoughts here. A lost Phantom is not stolen and to report it as such is against the law. Also there is no law against finding something. I hope he gets the quad back but no law against keeping something you find like this.
 
I don't understand some thoughts here. A lost Phantom is not stolen and to report it as such is against the law. Also there is no law against finding something. I hope he gets the quad back but no law against keeping something you find like this.
If someone crashes their RC aircraft on your property, its still theirs. They have to request permission to retrieve it. If you deny permission and don't personally return it, you are now in violation of the law.
 
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I don't understand some thoughts here. A lost Phantom is not stolen and to report it as such is against the law. Also there is no law against finding something. I hope he gets the quad back but no law against keeping something you find like this.
If this had just happened to me & I just had the phantom gps (which I know some of u guys have already said u can't take 100% notice of that) telling me that it was there & all of a sudden it wasn't I'd be 99% sure some dirty b*stard had just taken it & if my last known gps was directly on someone's property I'd be 99% sure they was the culprit's ,,,, but then again u never know maybe it was the Easter bunny??
If u find somebody else's wallet would u just presume it was yours!! Like finders keepers!? That is the worst logic I ever heard & a pure scumbags outlook! If someone loses something u should go out of you way to try to return it to the rightful owner,
For Me by Now there would of probably been a punch up involved if I knew who had it & probably the police would follow,,,lols
 
hahaha If your getting a connection wait till the middle of the night and hit full throttle. His luck it's on his dresser and will cause so much damage in his bedroom he'll throw it out the window. lol JK Good luck on getting it back. I personally would show up at his door with the cops unannounced and explain that he can and will go to jail if he doesn't return it.
 
Not sure on your laws, but I'm pretty sure just finding something doesn't make it legal to keep it.
Here you can hand it in to the Police, and after 3 months (or some period) if it's still unclaimed, then you can generally get it back and keep it, but I'd be very surprised if the neighbour - assuming they do have it - is within the law to keep it. I can't see your laws being so different to ours in that regard.
 
If someone crashes their RC aircraft on your property, its still theirs. They have to request permission to retrieve it. If you deny permission and don't personally return it, you are now in violation of the law.
I do agree if it lands on someone's property, it still belongs to the owner. When you fly these things you assume certain risks. People lose quads all the time. Just because you think it MAY be on someone's property doesn't mean you have access to their property. A person with a large property doesn't have to let you invade his space and trample all over it because you think it MAY be there. It would help to be able to prove where it went down. that could be hard to do. I doubt the law will get involved every time one loses a Phantom. Now if you bring the law with you, then the property owner will have to allow access, otherwise..no. Now, let's say you find A Phantom on this property. Doesn't mean it's yours. Better have proof. Now, let's say a quad was found in a ditch off a highway and someone finds it. It's not up to the finder to go out of their way to track down the owner . It would be nice if the finder being a moral person would do this. I would try to find the owner but I would't make it my life's goal. I have found wallets, credit cards, found and returned lost dogs not accepting rewards, etc and have found their owners. That's me.
Be sure your info is on the quad. Be nice and polite to the owner of property. Don't make threats. They could always claim they or some family member was hit by the quad. Most nice people would let you look if you are respectful. Some won't.
But, statements like reporting it stolen is just dumb.
 
Now if you bring the law with you, then the property owner will have to allow access, otherwise..no.

Wrong. Unless there is PC of a crime, the "law" has no right to access without a court order.

Be sure your info is on the quad. Be nice and polite to the owner of property. Don't make threats. They could always claim they or some family member was hit by the quad. Most nice people would let you look if you are respectful. Some won't. But, statements like reporting it stolen is just dumb.

I don't think anyone suggested making threats or otherwise. When the OP connected to the phantom at the property owner residence and it continually came up on the map as BEING ON/IN THE HOUSE, that's potentially enough evidence to speak with the police if the property owner is not being forthright and returning the phantom to the owner. The property owner has legal rights to request tort relief from the phantom owner for damages incurred through civil actions, but not to keep property he/she knows not to be theirs.
 

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