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Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

denverpost.com

31–40 of 139 posts

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#32

Alternate Article: https://sputniknews.com/us/201912241077783862-its-not-santa-... This sounds like a commercial operation. They're obeying the law, staying below 400ft, and operating in a rural area. It seems like the news articles are doing their best to make this sound bad when there's nothing nefarious going on.

Please note that sputnik is a Russian propaganda outlet 100% financed by the state and known to peddle disinformation. Sometimes they mix good content in to seem serious/relevant, bit even then it often has a spin. In short: you should take everything on sputnik with a massive chunk of salt and I'd recommend to always look for alternative articles.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#33
From the article:

He urged people not to try to shoot the drones down, both because their batteries can cause intense fires and also because shooting a drone is a federal crime.

“It becomes a self-generating fire that burns until it burns itself out,” he said. “If you shoot a drone down over your house and it lands on your house, you might not have a house in 45 minutes.”

So these are really vehicles of arson?

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#34
post #19

I like the advise to not shoot down the drones, as this can cause a battery fire. Seems very US-American to me.

> He urged people not to try to shoot the drones down, both because their batteries can cause intense fires and also because shooting a drone is a federal crime.

Shooting an inanimate object hovering over your property is illegal? ... on the federal level? I suppose it would have to be, but...

Edit: Now I know: "Under Title 18 of the United State Code 32, the sabotage of an unmanned aircraft could carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison." [0]

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/32

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#37
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think they care about the legality of those they are robbing all that much. People robbed of illegal property usually do not report such losses to the authorities.

Why do you assume it's illegal though? They have legal cannabis in Colorado.

> Why do you assume it's illegal though?

Because growing, selling, and possessing cannabis is illegal under US federal law, and if you are a organizer, manager, or supervisor deriving substantial income from such an operation conducted with 5 or more other individuals, you can be charged wih a felony with a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first offense, and if the operation handles enough product or makes enough money, the minimum sentence moves up to life without possibility of parole.

There's a current federal law that prohibits initiating prosecutions for cannabis operations that are permitted under state-level medical marijuana laws, but that doesn't negate the offense, it just means any charges that would be covered by the prohibition (which violations not strictly with medical marijuana laws.are technically not) are delayed as long as the policy is in effect.

> They have legal cannabis in Colorado.

No, they have a situation in which some cannabis trade is prohibited by only one of the two applicable sovereigns.

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#39

Does anyone have an alternate source? This site is horrendous on mobile.

My god this has to be one of the worst news sites I've ever seen. Do these publishers have no shame? I got two full screen video ads with audio on mobile and it dragged my brand new Pixel phone to a crawl.

This worked fine in Brave (no ads, rendered fine)

Re: Drones flying nighttime patterns over NE Colorado leave law enforcement stumped

#40
Whatever they’re doing out there, it sounds like a lot of fun. Considering that they seem to be following the letter of the law, I’m fairly certain this is some sort of commercial operation. I can see a defense contractor using a large multirotor craft to test some new payloads, like night vision optical or IR sensors. If the 30 minute hover is to be believed, they must be a multirotor of some sort.
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