Police Helicopter Sent After My Phantom!!!!

rgc2005 said:
Pretty standard response.
He was flying, a citizen called, the police arrived, the police investigated, no crime was committed, the officer was curious, the police explained the situation and let him go.
The helicopter was probably just in the area. Most large cities have 24 hour air patrol service.

Yes, the police helicopter patrols downtown on the weekends. It was Friday night and I live downtown.
 
MadMitch88 said:
Nice to know valuable taxpayer dollars are spent on a helicopter that costs over $1,000/hour to operate and several police cars were sent chasing after a potential Peeping Tom case.

God forbid they actually try to spend their time going after terrorists, child abductors, rapists, and drug dealers!

Jesus.

My thoughts exactly. Quick, call 911. I am naked and a quad copter won't stop filming me. Being detained freaked me out.
 
terrylowe said:
PhantomFanatic said:
As you get older, law enforcement kinda leaves you alone, but they despise anyone between 20-40. I wish I knew why.

The older generation generally has a more respectful tone when dealing with "persons in authority".
I couldn't be a law enforcement officer. Eye rolls drive me crazy! :roll: ;)

I am older than 40 and the police officer actually thanked me for being so cooperative. His partner was a **** though.
 
Pmcdn said:
alanw2005 said:
I was flying my phantom when all of a sudden a police helicopter shows up. It hovered about me. I was flying at about 10 metres altitude at this point to drain my battery. I pack up and leave but the police helicopter stays and watches me. It starts to follow me as I walk home.

As I am walking home police appear from everywhere. A police officer calls out to me to tell me to stop. I walk toward him. He asks if I know why they want to talk to me. I say "ah because I was flying my quad copter"? He say no, we got a 911 call from a woman who says she was at home and nude and I kept taking video of her. WTF??

He ask if my quad has a camera and if I was recording. I tell him I record every flight for evidence in case there is an incident like this.

I told the officer I took off from the park, flew over the water and then took some aerial of the city. He tells me I am being detained and to cooperate or he has to take me to the police station. He asks if I am a voyeur. WTF?? This thing has lots of bright flashing lights and makes lots of noise. I told him I was not close to any buildings and if I were, the camera does not have zoom and has poor low light quality.

He asks to see my quad and tells me not to delete the video. He then proceeds to start pushing every button on my GoPro. I don't know what he was looking for. I offer to show him the video on my iphone. He sees I was telling him the truth and lets me go.

Last week when I went for a flight, 2 police officers came up to me and told me to keep the quad away from buildings because as soon as one goes up in the air, their 911 operators start getting lots of calls.

People calling 911 with no basis to do so should be charged a fee.

I'd like to know what city you were flying, what part of the city, how high were you flying, were you near certain buildings, etc etc.

Would you mind giving more details? I believe that there may be a number of key variables that are being left out.

Downtown Vancouver. Took off 40 feet from some buildings in a park.Flew to about 200 feet AGL.
 
Khudson7 said:
Yes, it sure does seem a bit suspicious to me, that he had 2 different encounters with police, according to his post. From his videos(posted in another thread), it appears he was filming at False Creek, Vancouver, Canada. And he does seem to be very close to several high rise apartment buildings. Perhaps that explains why people were calling the police on him.

I live in an urban area. Downtown Vancouver.
 
alanw2005, Welcome to the party. :D

Here's my disclaimer: No offence is intended to anyone, even the mad folks, in this thread, so stay focused.

It's tons of fun, educational, stupid, entertaining, enlightening, sickening, bewildering, stunning, overwhelming and sometimes it's just plane (can I use the word plane here?) MAD.

Next time you post something so volatile, you may want to keep a closer eye on your post. Some of us seem to get our panties in a bunch really fast. :eek: Oh yeah, we do have the speculators. Yep - I do it too. The difference is, I usually wait, albeit somewhat impatiently for more facts.

And then there are the kids who throw gas on the fire and say, "What did I do?" Ohh to be young again... blech.

Anyway, we are hearing stories like this day after day. When I stop and think, even for a moment, I wonder if anyone can think of a good reason to jump to conclusions? Are we trying desperately to save a life? NOPE.
It seems as though some of us are working ourselves into a tizzie because of mad posters working their little butts off trying to escalate the negative.

SO NOW: Climbing high upon my pile of soap boxes I shout out...
Spreading hate and discontent has no place in my world!
Patience and tolerance will do so much more to promote acceptance of our crazy flying machines.

THE END
 
alanw2005 said:
I am older than 40 and the police officer actually thanked me for being so cooperative. His partner was a **** though.
Sounds like a classic case of "good cop...bad cop!"
 
Hey IflyinWY, was there some point in your ramblings here?
Or is that just how plain(plane) folks talk out where the deer and antelope play? ;)
IflyinWY said:
alanw2005, Welcome to the party. :D

Here's my disclaimer: No offence is intended to anyone, even the mad folks, in this thread, so stay focused.

It's tons of fun, educational, stupid, entertaining, enlightening, sickening, bewildering, stunning, overwhelming and sometimes it's just plane (can I use the word plane here?) MAD.
There is that **** word "plane" again...Oh, I get it...a play on words, perhaps? Clever...
IflyinWY said:
Next time you post something so volatile, you may want to keep a closer eye on your post. Some of us seem to get our panties in a bunch really fast. :eek: Oh yeah, we do have the speculators. Yep - I do it too. The difference is, I usually wait, albeit somewhat impatiently for more facts.
Wait for more facts? And exactly where is the fun...in that?
IflyinWY said:
And then there are the kids who throw gas on the fire and say, "What did I do?" Ohh to be young again... blech.

Anyway, we are hearing stories like this day after day. When I stop and think, even for a moment, I wonder if anyone can think of a good reason to jump to conclusions? Are we trying desperately to save a life? NOPE..
"Save a life? NOPE"... "Jump to conclusions?" Yelp, adds some spice to life, after all! (Have you seen the weather...outside?) :roll:
IflyinWY said:
It seems as though some of us are working ourselves into a tizzie because of mad posters working their little butts off trying to escalate the negative..
"Mad posters?...Working their little butts off trying to escalate the negative"...Like that never happens on this forum...
IflyinWY said:
SO NOW: Climbing high upon my pile of soap boxes I shout out...
Spreading hate and discontent has no place in my world!
Patience and tolerance will do so much more to promote acceptance of our crazy flying machines.

THE END
The End...Wow...thought we would never get there!
(This post is meant in jest...do NOT get your panties in a bunch) :oops:
 

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:lol: :lol: :lol:

I don't know how to respond to that.

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Just welcoming the new pilot to the whacky world of the fantom phorum.
Nope, no point to the rest of my post. I had the talking stick so just kept going. :D
 
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I see 2 categories of concern related to UAVs: privacy and safety.
The general public is concerned about privacy by overestimating what can be done and "seen" by a Phantom. It will take some time, but with current trend, it's quite possible than people may "accommodate" better to quads flying nearby.
Safety is a bit different... Perceptions are important and current Quad operators should use common sense, understand the limits of their "toys" and be prepared for potential "in flight" issues.
 
MadMitch88 said:
Nice to know valuable taxpayer dollars are spent on a helicopter that costs over $1,000/hour to operate and several police cars were sent chasing after a potential Peeping Tom case.

God forbid they actually try to spend their time going after terrorists, child abductors, rapists, and drug dealers!......
Too hard to catch. A person walking with a quad much less work involved.
I would also still like to know where?
.
(forum that does not require general location--not good)
 
how come no one asked the most important ? of all. Did you eventually go over your videos and see if you maybe did by chance catch a peek at the paranoid naked chick? and if so was she even hot? :p

Seriously tho I have had the police come to my house and make sure that some of the calls they were getting about a ufo was just me flying and not really some alien space invasion. One night when I was flying some freak actually tried to waist the police's time to report a ufo and was all freaked out over it. Ive also heard that they do tend to get a lot of calls like that when I fly as well as the other types of freaks that call the cops and accuse them of spying on them with out a warrant.

Funny cause if I was the person at the police station taking the calls being accused of watching some one with out a warrant I would think humm "should we be ?" It seems just that alone should warrant some one needing a looking in to. if they feel they have some thing they dont want the cops see. BUT sort of stupid to call the cops about that. as if they would admit to it if they were doing it in the first place. lol and really idiotic that any freak that sees the quad would as there first conclusion assume it MUST be aliens and not some man made earthly thing. and even if it was a space ship I dont know what the heck some one would think the cops could do about space invaders esp if they were not doing any thing illegal and just visiting from mars.

But from what I could gather from the night the cops came because of the ufo report and when chit chatting with one of them about other people in the town that seemed relived when they see it was me flying the quad and not the cops. He thought that was hilarious. It seems the police seem to think that in a way its good that my quad keeps a few people paranoid that big brother might be watching as it tends to make people walk afraid to do stuff they should not be doing.
 
Yes, for sure. The only people that should be worrying about some one spying on them are the ones that have something to hide. UFO's are just "space gas." Anyone or anything that could fly many light years and took one look at the Earth would have enough intelligence to stay away from us.
 
Kind of reminds me of the Arlo Guthrie song Alice's Restaurant, where the entire police department is out investigating the crime scene taking 8 x 10 color glossies
 
I'm wondering what's going to happen when UAVs become as common as smartphones and everyone has one?

So in the future if some paranoid lady calls 911 claiming that a drone was filming her naked from outside her house --- are they going to mobilize the city's entire police force and round up a few hundred people in a 1 mile radius and watch all their Phantom videos to make sure nobody was indeed filming a naked lady? I'm envisioning a large parking lot where 300 or 400 are people are sitting in handcuffs while a few dozen cops are frantically inserting SD cards into their laptops to check for any footage of a naked lady!

LOL, umm yeah that sounds practical. :lol:
 
Lets turn this around...what if that "Hot naked paranoid chick" turns out to be a 65 year overweight naked hag. I could certainly understand her... if she claimed she had something to hide. And that also would probably disperse the police force and everyone else, rather quickly as well.
 
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Ciprian said:
I see 2 categories of concern related to UAVs: privacy and safety.
The general public is concerned about privacy by overestimating what can be done and "seen" by a Phantom. It will take some time, but with current trend, it's quite possible than people may "accommodate" better to quads flying nearby.
Safety is a bit different... Perceptions are important and current Quad operators should use common sense, understand the limits of their "toys" and be prepared for potential "in flight" issues.

Well said. I said something very similar in a message to my local congressman today.
 
Khudson7 said:
alanw2005 said:
I am older than 40 and the police officer actually thanked me for being so cooperative. His partner was a **** though.
Sounds like a classic case of "good cop...bad cop!"

Yeah. Maybe I was duped. Made me want to cooperate as much as possible because the good cop was so nice.
 
Guess I have been lucky. Only one city officer drove past me slow when I was in a big empty ball field. I glanced down, he nodded, I waved, and he kept on going. Maybe one that knew the city does not have any ordinances against quads. (yet)
 

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