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AIBU?

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To have bashed this drone?

89 replies

Dronebasher · 23/02/2019 18:54

Went for walk/picnic along the river today with DH and our 3 small DC. While we were eating lunch a group of boys maybe 9-11 years old appeared and were a short distance from us climbing an old tree that had half fallen in the water. Eventually they egged each other on and a few of them stripped off and were jumping into the river. We couldn't see a great deal but could hear them clear enough. DS7 was truly fascinated!

A few minutes after the boys start jumping in along comes a drone flying low. It's a giant bloody thing and comes right down over our heads. DH starts waving at and it carries on to where the boys are and is just hovering. Now the boys are hooting and hollering at it while throwing stones. I go running over yelling put your clothes on that thing is taking pictures of you! The drone is now hovering and zipping around a few feet over our heads and making no move to leave. I pick up a fallen branch and start swinging at it and managed to make contact. It ended up in the river.

Lo and behold the owner shows up ten minutes later in absolute rage saying he's going to report me to the police for destroying his drone. I tell him it wasn't safe to be flying so damn close to people and he was clearly taking pictures of naked children. He says they were in public and he can take photos if he wants. We ended up leaving with the gaggle of boys following us (I think at this point they were all fairly spooked).

It really wasn't the afternoon I expected and now I'm wondering if I'll be contacted by the police!

OP posts:
FurrySlipperBoots · 23/02/2019 19:58

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calpop · 23/02/2019 20:02

It was very warm here today - we went out on a bike ride in t shirts. My kids would have done the same thing.

I would also have done what you did

NarcissistMum · 23/02/2019 20:13

If the drone is more than 30 feet high you will not see really clear images of an individual person. (Although I realise in this case he was flying a lot lower) I love my drone, and fly within National Air Traffic guidelines, but people call them spying devices is a little dramatic. With your average amateur drone, youwill get roughly the same spec of photos as you would with a phone. Great for doing aerial shots and dramatic landscapes, but if you are 50 feet from an individual you will not see any detail of any individual, so please don’t worry in that respect.

WorraLiberty · 23/02/2019 20:14

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Highheels1 · 23/02/2019 20:16

I absolutely hate drones.

But absolutely love the visual image of you twatting it with a branch into the river!! Fair Play OP!!

BMW6 · 23/02/2019 20:32

I don't believe this thread. Children don't go skinny dipping in February. Not i England anyway.

Kids were jumping in the river near my home today. Not skinny dipping as were wearing bathers, but they were certainly jumping in! (South coast)

WorraLiberty · 23/02/2019 20:33

Kids will go skinny dipping, but stripping completely naked?

Sounds like a bad version of Tom Brown's School Days

BMW6 · 23/02/2019 20:38

Skinny dipping IS stripping completely naked! What did you think the term implied??

PetuniaPetunia · 23/02/2019 20:40

Narcissist mum if you are taking photos of strangers with a drone or phone you ARE spying!

WorraLiberty · 23/02/2019 20:43

Skinny dipping IS stripping completely naked! What did you think the term implied??

Yeah sorry, I realised that as soon as I hit post message.

What I mean is, kids will swim outdoors in natural lakes etc

But in all my life, I've never known them to strip completely naked rather than down to their pants.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2019 20:44

Me neither Worra, not at that age.

HavelockVetinari · 23/02/2019 20:55

My siblings and I used to strip off completely to swim with local friends, up to the age of c.11 or 12. Same sex friends, obviously at that age, but I resent PPs suggesting it wouldn't happen or that there is something untoward in kids swimming together. There was nothing remotely weird in it.

ClaraMumsnet · 23/02/2019 20:59

Just reminding you of our guidelines against troll hunting - we can never vouch for anyone, or say what's true on t'internet, but we can't see anything to suggest the OP isn't genuine here.

Sparklingbrook · 23/02/2019 21:00

Well it's never happened to me or to my DC, and I have never witnessed naked preteens swimming outdoors and certainly not in February.

thatmustbenigelwiththebrie · 23/02/2019 21:01

I thin you massively overreacted. The guy was probably just out flying his drone not deliberately filming children.

Micom · 23/02/2019 21:08

if he turned up 10 minutes later and his drone was in the river then how did he know it was you
From the phone stream, he'd of seen her as she's was hitting it.

Fiveredbricks · 23/02/2019 21:16

@FurrySlipperBoots it was 17° here today according to my car. Here up north that's basically summer. There were kids in the lake by mine.

SadOtter · 23/02/2019 21:17

Eurgh He says they were in public and he can take photos if he wants so he didn't even try to make out that you were wrong and he was taking photos of something else? that is pretty creepy. I can't imagine he'll go to the police, whats he going to do? walk into the police station and say "I was breaking the law, flying too close to people and taking images of children when some woman whacked my drone with a stick"

LellowYedbetter · 23/02/2019 21:27

Bullshit. Kids don’t go skinny dipping. They'd have kept their boxers on at least.

LilQueenie · 23/02/2019 21:31

contact the police or possible make mention of it on your local parenting pages on fb or whatever. Ideally the parents should know. I would want to know if it was my child.

Whisky2014 · 23/02/2019 21:36

Not all drones have cameras do they?

bowchicawowwow · 23/02/2019 21:37

We had a drone but worried so much about accidentally breaking the rules that we sold it. Worried the entire time we were flying it that we didn't really get a lot of enjoyment from it. Got some cracking footage flying it over Loch Lomond though.

Santaclarita · 23/02/2019 21:41

He said he can take photos if he wants to just because they are in public?

Please report him if you haven't. What a disgusting man.

Nomorepies · 23/02/2019 21:42

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Longdistance · 23/02/2019 21:46

Drones are cuntish. It’s like spying and prying.

If I got hold of it I would’ve drowned it in the river.