Man Shoots Down Neighbor’s Drone With A Shotgun

In rural California, a man shot down his neighbor’s hexacopter with a 12-gauge shotgun. According to the hexacopter owner, the man who shot his drone said he though the aircraft was a CIA surveillance device.

The incident took place last November in Modesto, California. The shooter of the drone was reportedly Brett McBay, who serves on the local school board. The owner of the hexacopter is Eric Joe.

As Ars Technica reported, Joe says that he was flying his hexacopter for just around three minutes before it was shot down. Joe’s drone was obviously badly damaged by the single shotgun blast that found its mark. However, Eric Joe said that most of the expensive components were still salvageable.

“It was nice to meet you and your son. I wish it could have been under different circumstances, but I have to give credit to the McBay school of marksmanship. Still, I’m pretty bummed that I just built this hexacopter only to have it shot down. Also, it was a little disconcerting to know that the spread of the birdshot/buckshot was in my direction. In any case, I had a chance to test the components of the downed hexacopter. Good news is that the more expensive components (on the inside of the frame) are in tact. Stuff on the outside of the frame took the most damage.”

McBay did not seem interested in paying for the damage at all. He maintained that the drone was hovering over his property and that Joe’s estimation of $700 in repairs was excessive.

“With all do [sic] respect $700 dollars seems excessive. Perhaps in SF it’s normal for folks to have drones hovering over their property but we live in the country for privacy. I will be willing to split the cost with you but next time let us know your testing surveillance equipment in our area. I’ll drop a check of [sic] this afternoon.”

Joe continued emailing McBay, but the conversation went nowhere. McBay ended the exchange by saying that Joe had his facts wrong and that their discussion was over.

Since he couldn’t solve the problem on his own, Joe decided to take the issue to court. Fortunately for Eric Joe, the small claims court ruled in his favor.

“Court finds that Mr. McBay acted unreasonably in having his son shoot the drone down regardless of whether it was over his property or not,”

Ultimately, Mr. Joe was awarded $850 by the court. According to Ars, Joe has not yet received his payment from McBay.

[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]