10-22-15 North Carolina:
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A registered sex offender was arrested for flying a drone near the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh.
The arrest warrant doesn't detail why 38-year-old Matthew Allen Kenning was flying a drone outside the State Fairgrounds.
The sheriff's office said the drone was flown over the fairgrounds and had a camera attached to it. As far as they know, that's all that was attached to the drone. Deputies are unsure if Kenning managed to take any pictures, but they are getting a search warrant to look through the camera.
Arrest warrants show the unmanned aircraft was reportedly launched from the shoulder of Hillsborough Street near its intersection with Blue Ridge Road. A law-enforcement officer spotted it and they followed it outside the fairgrounds where they watched Kenning land the drone.
Kenning has been arrested four times in Wake County since 2009, according to court records. He is also listed on the state's sex offender registry, but that was for a crime that happened in Indiana in 1999. The listing does not specify the crime, only that the victim was 15 and Kenning was 22 at the time.
Kenning is also charged with possession of drugs and drug paraphernalia. According to the arrest warrant, Kenning had a silver cylinder keychain containing Adderall and eight Suboxone pills.
The sheriff's office said they won't know Kenning's motive until they examine the drone and the camera.
This is the second time a sex offender was arrested at the State Fairgrounds. A registered sex offender was arrested at the North Carolina State Fair Tuesday after the Wake County Sheriff's Office said he was posing as a ride inspector in the kiddie land area of the event. ..Source.. by WTVD.com
Showing posts with label ( .News-Drones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ( .News-Drones. Show all posts
October 22, 2015
Sex offender arrested for flying drone near NC State Fair
July 30, 2015
Kentucky man shoots down drone hovering over his backyard
Over his property? Humm, were they casing the place? Were they looking for pics to blackmail him? The point is, over his property -what are his rights-, and it will be interesting to see how the court rules..7-30-15 Kentucky:
See Also: There’s a Drone Flying Over My House. Can I Shoot It?
The way William Merideth sees it, it’s pretty clear-cut: a drone flying over his backyard was a well-defined invasion of privacy, analogous to a physical trespassing.
Not knowing who owned it, the Kentucky man took out his shotgun and fired three blasts of Number 8 birdshot to take the drone out.
"It was just right there," he told Ars. "It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying. When he came down with a video camera right over my back deck, that's not going to work. I know they're neat little vehicles, but one of those uses shouldn’t be flying into people's yards and videotaping."
Minutes later, a car full of four men that he didn’t recognize rolled up, "looking for a fight." "Are you the son of a bitch that shot my drone?" one said, according to Merideth.
His terse reply to the men, while wearing a 10mm Glock holstered on his hip: "If you cross that sidewalk onto my property, there’s going to be another shooting."
The men backed down, retreated to their car, and waited for the police to arrive.
"His only comment was that he hoped I had a big checkbook because his drone cost $1,800," Merideth added.
The Kentuckian was arrested Sunday evening in Hillview, Kentucky, just south of Louisville and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment. He was released the following day. The Hillview Police Department did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.
A measured approach?
The report of the downed drone comes a month after Ars reported on a similar incident in Modesto, California. But in that case, the drone operator was flying his drone over his parents’ farm, and it was shot down by a neighbor.
Here, Merideth, who operates a local trucking company, said that he had seen "two or three" different drones in his backyard previously over the last year and was disturbed by their presence. "What recourse do we have?" he asked.
The 43-year-old man claimed that law enforcement officials, including the county jailer, told him privately that they agreed with his actions. "The people that own the drones and the people that hate guns are the only ones that disagree with what I did," he said. "Now, if I’d have had a .22 rifle, I should have gone to jail for that. The diameter of those things are going to come down with enough force to hurt somebody. Number 8 birdshot is not. Number 8 is the size of a pinhead. The bottom line is that it's a right to privacy issue and defending my property issue. It would have been no different had he been standing in my backyard. As Americans, we have a right to defend our rights and property."
So what’s next in this bizarre tale?
"We have a lawyer and there's a court date and then there's going to be a hearing," Merideth said. "It's not going to stop with the two charges against me, which I'm confident that we'll get reduced or get dismissed completely."
And what would Merideth like to tell this errant drone operator when he meets him again?
"I would just like [him] to get some education on his toy and learn to respect the rights of the people," he said. "It's fine and dandy, and I think it's cool there's a camera on it, but just take it to a park or something—he's not a responsible drone owner." ..Source.. by Cyrus Farivar
June 26, 2014
Peeping Tom drone? Woman dressing 26 floors up spots drone out her window
Welcome to the new world of technology as the first case of a drone peeping Tom is reported in Seattle. A woman on the 26th floor never thought she would have to worry about a peeping Tom until she spotted a drone outside her window, according to the New York Daily News on June 25.
Lisa Pleiss felt violated when she spotted this drone was flying outside her apartment window hovering about a block away as she was getting dressed. Was she going to show up in a video online?
That might be one of the first questions you’d ask yourself when a drone fitted with a camera was within the distance for filming or clicking pictures. It was a rude awaking for Pleiss who never thought anyone or anything could see inside her window 26 floors up. She reported it to the building’s Concierge, who immediately called the police, according to Seattle Times today.
The drone's owner is speaking up saying he was photographing the Seattle skyline, not looking in the windows of unsuspecting Seattle residents. Still, seeing the drone felt extremely violating to a woman used to seeing only birds fly by at that height.
When she first spotted the drone, she hid. Then she decided to snap a photo of the drone to have if she needed it as proof. She closed the blinds and called her building’s front desk. Curosity got the best of her apparently because she continued watching the drone’s moves.
She watched as the drone flew back to two men standing on a street corner. The men gathered up their equipment, including the drone, hopped in a car and were gone. Joe Vaughn, who owns the company Skyris Imaging said that the drone belonged to his company, in fact he owns a fleet of these flying vehicles that he uses to take aerial pictures.
He was adamant that he was not taking pictures of people and there is no way that he is a peeping Tom, said Vaughn. He uses the drones fit with cameras to take pictures of property, farm land and real estate.
In this particular incident, Vaughn’s company was hired to take pictures of the property that a builder was considering purchasing to build a new office building. It happened to sit adjacent to the building that Pleiss lives in.
Vaughn apologized to Pleiss and was very reassuring that he was not taking indecent pictures of her. He also shared some of the photos he took as evidence that her apartment wasn’t the subject of his photo shoot.
While Vaughn’s drone wasn’t a peeping Tom, the drones are getting more prevalent in society today. The prices have gone down and they’ve become very affordable. While this wasn't a peeping Tom drone, one could imagine it is just a matter of time before one is out there piloted by some thrill seeking person with his new toy!
The police say that the drone didn’t break any law as you can legally fly them. They are still investigating the case. While drones are legal to fly if someone reports a case of a peeping Tom drone, then that is something they would investigate. ..Source.. by Roz Zurko
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