A man asked to take drone pictures of our house

[allthetiles]

A bit of a weird thing happened today, a man came to our house and rang on the doorbell. He asked if he could take drone pictures of our house as before we bought the house his parents lived here and they are elderly now and he is creating some project related to their life. We have lived in the house for more than 30 years so a very long time.

We agreed to this and got his drone up in the air taking pictures but on reflection I feel a bit weird about it all and maybe regret giving him permission to do so.

Is it scam do you think?

That should say the man brought the drone with him and he set it up himself, we just stayed in the house after we gave permission.

I think it was a valid reason and sounds like a nice thing for him to be doing. Not much you can do about it now 🤷‍♀️

unfortunstely it could be a scam, but it's not terribly likely. Burglars etc don't usually ask! You might find in the future you're offered the photos (at a cost), but try not to worry, what's done is done.

Well he could have just driven his drone over and taken the pictures without asking.🤷🏻‍♀️

This sounds extremely inconsequential.

Exactly how do you think this scam would operate and why do you think aerial images of your house (which are freely available on apps like Google Earth) would give anyone any leverage over you?

If he was up to no good he wouldn't have asked. I think he is genuine and a lot of people wouldn't have bothered asking, even with the same reason.

What would the scam be you're imagining?

We’ve had someone offer to fly a drone over and take photos of our house … it’s a 1940s ex council house with a garden full of kids toys and gardening paraphernalia… I told him I could see it on Google maps for free and he was quite upset 😬

I read on Facebook they ask to take drone photos of houses with expensive breed dogs in so that burglars can find the house and take the dog when you’re out…

There are always possibilities that we can't foresee whether we say yes or no. In this case it seems most likely that a guy, trying to do something Lu lovely for his parents, has been considerate and asked your permission. You have been gracious and agreed. And because of that he will feel like he love bed in a world where people are kind to each other and his parents will get a slightly better gift and a happier son.

You can take heart that you live in a world where a son wants to do this for his aging parents and feel better about the world. Or you can worry it might not be what it seems and become more suspicious and closed off and think worse of the world.

I think having in mind that things aren't always what they seem is sensible, but taking it a bit further and worrying where there is no evidence is dangerous.