White City, Ore. — Someone takes aim at a drone and shoots it out of the sky.
It happened in White City, and tonight, the man who owns it is trying to track down the person
responsible.
Medford resident Charles Hidde says flying his drone is a hobby.
He says he uses it to get footage for his wife’s nonprofit organization, but his love of drones goes beyond the practical.
There’s an emotional tie too.
His father was a pilot and instilled in Hidde a love of flying.
“The idea of being able to see from that perspective was appealing to me,” Hidde said.
Hidde says he wanted to get outside on Tuesday so he took his drone out to hoover ponds county park.
The area allows him to get footage of dirt bikes and four wheelers doing tricks.
While he was filming he noticed a vehicle that looked like it was stuck.
Then as he flew the drone closer to get a better look it suddenly went barreling toward the ground.
“You can kind of see right there in the front there’s a bullet hole,” Hidde said.
It wasn’t until he reviewed his footage that Hidde realized his drone was shot.
“I was obviously pretty upset,” Hidde said.
Now, it’s unable to fly.
“I could see if someone felt their privacy was being invaded, but then again this is a public park,” Hidde said.
Hidde says he’s somewhat new to the drone community, but he does know the basic rules and to stay off of private property.
“It’s almost common sense. If I was out here flying and there’s houses 200 yards over there, I’m not gonna fly my drone over there,” Hidde said.
Hidde doesn’t know if the one thousand dollar drone can be fixed, but he says the incident won’t keep him from flying again.
He just wants others to know his intent is never to invade privacy.
“That’s why I came here to fly instead of flying over people’s houses and stuff,” Hidde said.
Hidde says he hopes those who are skeptical of drones can also see the benefits like finding lost people in the woods.
Shooting down a drone is a felony federal crime, according to 18 USC 32.
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