To be concerned about drone catching images of my children in paddling pool

[Slightlygiganticpants]

Last night whilst my dc were playing in the garden, (which is completely private and in a rural location, we have about 3 neighbours) a drone flew over several times. The dc were playing in the paddling pool at this time in various states of undress.

My dh got the children in and I went in search of the drone operator. Located him and started filming him with my phone. He was on the other side of the river from my house. He disliked my filming of him and we became engaged in a fairly heated debate with me calling him a pervert and possibly a peadophile. Apparently what he was doing was completely legal (I believe drone was less than 50 meters from us but that is up for debate) and he wasn't filming the dc. He did also phone the police after I left and then came around and spoke to my dh.

I have looked into this since and have found out that this is legal! How? Surely this can't be right? Surely we have a right to privacy in our own garden!

OP can you see that there is a house from where the man was standing? Could he have thought that as he was in the countryside that he was alone?

You massively overreacted. You went and accused him of being a paedophile before even knowing if he was filming anything. I'm not surprised he phone the police.

Only read the first few pages but you seem incredibly blasé about it "hopefully he won't do it again" given you are so certain he was up to no good.

This is crazy, I know it's technically legal but it shouldn't be ok for someone to film you in the privacy of your own very private rural garden. How is this different to someone standing on a ladder looking over your hedge with a camera? OP, hope you can stop him from doing this again somehow and get message across that it's not ok!

He flew over that many times it wasn't accidental.

😂😂 people keep saying ops DH 'let' her go to look for the drone flier

Op I think people like this are lonely. They are allowed to have hobbies and so what if people fly drones into your garden, so what if your naked sunbathing, you have as previous poster said, no idea if it's filming or indeed which way the camera is facing.

As awful as it sounds, this is the law. You cannot attack poor people who have little hobby for peering into your garden.

Maybe.. A more appropriate response would have been to invite him in!? Be human and offer him a drink, chat to him, show him your garden and children... If that's what the poor fellow wants to see.
All of us must accept drones they area the future.

Hose or pressure washer + drone = sorted.

sparkling123

Many moons ago there was a thread about a man who kept peering onto the garden. Every time op went outside, this man would pop up, start chatting. In the end she built a fence higher at some points to selfishly try and afford her some privacy.

The man built a platform on his side so he could still keep up the peering. It was a decidedly then the poor man was lonely and it was selfish and disgraceful of op motto facilitate his peering and chatting.

Rayne May I be the first to ask “are you on glue?”

Latter, I’ll rephrase - “OP’s husband didn’t go and look for the drone flier instead of OP”. Even the most feminist men I know wouldn’t agree to their female partner going to search for a man the partner believed was a pervert

the reason why we don’t know what was said between the husband and operator was because the conversation went along the lines of “mate, your wife is nuts”...”yeah, sorry about that”

Rayne - have you been on the whacky baccy this morning?

OP-how do you know he was filming?

Can I ask a question. If the man was filming and then the film was uploaded or stored anywhere that there was potentially public access (and those clips contained naked / semi nude children), would this be a crime?

@Slightlygiganticpants

I don't think you were unreasonable at all.

I also live in a very rural area, and if someone was flying a drone consistently over my property I'd be going out to find them and see what they were doing too.

However, I have also lived in a city centre and a suburban area before, and I don't think I would have found it as suspicious then.

It's the nature of living in the middle of nowhere that you expect a higher level of privacy, and therefore i can understand that it must have felt highly intrusive.

So are you going to contact the police about this?

That's a good point.

Given that you think he's a pervert paedophile, and the police obvs know who he is because they will have taken his details when they went out after he phoned them, why haven't you called them to report this pervert paedophile who was repeatedly filming your half naked children?

@Theycouldhavechoseneve

Latter, I’ll rephrase - “OP’s husband didn’t go and look for the drone flier instead of OP”. Even the most feminist men I know wouldn’t agree to their female partner going to search for a man the partner believed was a pervert

Are you kidding me?? My DH doesn't 'agree' to let me do anything. I do what I want because I'm my own person not because I'm his 'other half'. Not all men are bigger than their female partners. Not all men are as eloquent as their female partners. Not all men prefer confronting poor behaviour compared with their female partners. Bloody hell that's knocked feminism back a few years.

OP YANBU to be pissed off at the invasion of privacy but as neither of you didn't anything illegal I'd chalk it up to hopefully a one off twat who won't do it again.

shop.droneflight.co.uk/pages/summary-of-uk-legal-requirements rules

I would have done the same as you OP. Maybe not filmed him though.

It’s completely out of order to fly a drone over someone’s house, legal or not.

@JaneDoe9000 use your brain. If he wanted an aeroplane he'd have bought an aeroplane.

If he wanted to perv/case the house for burglary he'd use a drone.

Is it really so hard to understand?

I'd be mightily concerned if someone repeatedly flew their drone over my garden too - with or without my semi-clothed children, and the fact that he kept returning despite what he was filming (and he did confirm he was filming) would make me suspicious. I probably would react similarly, I'd certainly call the police to log it - as others have said, may well be looking for houses to break into. In all likelihood he didn't actually call the police, but said he had to stop you calling them, IYSWIM.

I hate that this is legal - I've known of someone having a nasty fall off their pony which was frightened by someone flying one over them when they were riding in their fields. Fortunately she wasn't injured, just bumps and bruises, but was very shaken up, and the pony was tetchy for days. I also hate the lack of privacy - the thought of someone filming any of us without permission, when we are in a private place, just makes me sad and quite angry.

This is like the thread equivalent of a tabloid. Jumping to a conclusion, reacting like that conclusion is fact, then bursting with self righteous indignation.