AITA for chewing out a drone guy?

A couple in a rural neighborhood had an unexpected encounter when they spotted a drone hovering over their fenced backyard. The wife, uncomfortable with the situation, asked her husband about it, and they went to investigate. They found a man operating the drone nearby, who claimed he was photographing the neighbor’s house for a real estate listing.

However, when asked about the drone hovering over their property, the man denied it, leading to a heated exchange. The couple felt lied to and gaslighted, especially when the operator dismissed their concerns about privacy. Later, their neighbor called them “lunatics” for confronting the drone pilot, leaving the couple wondering if they had overreacted.

‘AITA for chewing out a drone guy?’

Yesterday my husband and I were in our fenced backyard prepping to paint our house when a drone buzzed overhead. F**king HATE drones but sometimes they fly by, whatever. This one, however, stopped about 20 feet directly over our house and hovered for a minute or two before zipping off.

I pointed it out and wondered who in our remote rural neighborhood had one and why would they be taking pix of us. He thought it might be the underwriter for our new insurance company so we went out the gate to see. There was a dude parked on the street, clearly operating it.

DH called out to the guy, asking if he was insurance. The guy just turned his back to us. So I i hollered (still a distance away) asking who he was. He finally answered that he was taking pix for a real estate listing. I informed him, not particularly kindly, that this was my house and it wasn’t being listed. He then pointed at our neighbors’ house. But that didn’t explain why he was hovering over our house, and when I said so he replied with “Incorrect!” and “Wrong!” I demanded to see the footage because I quite literally watched him fly it over our house but ofc he wouldn’t show it to us.

It ended with him saying he didn’t see what the problem was and us pointing out the people don’t like it when strange men fly drones over their fenced backyards, where they had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

In the moment I was too heated to, well, think, and as we stomped back to our house, it became clear that he was over our house to get an aerial shot of the neighbor’s house. So why didn’t he just say that, instead of calling me a liar and saying he never flew the drone over our house?That in itself is sketch to me.

No threats were made, no cops were called, but we felt pretty justified in our pissed offness, especially his lying and gaslighting me about it. Our neighbor otoh texted and said we were lunatics for confronting the guy and that it was no big deal. I asked him how he’d feel if some strange man flew a drone over his house while his kids were outside. He refused to answer that and just kept implying we were out of line. So Reddit, were we?

Here’s what people had to say to OP:

ThePhilV – NTA at all. If he truly is a professional and had legitimate reasons to be flying hovering over your house, professional courtesy would dictate that he talk to you about it first, and assure you that he’s not doing anything other than taking some photos for the real estate listing. He could even offer to show them to you afterwards.

If I were you, I would ask the neighbours (or simply check on your local listings site) who the realtor is and contact their agency. I’m certain that any reputable firm wouldn’t want to be represented in that manner.

Scary-Welder8404 says:

NTA. Hey y’all, your neighbours are selling and hired me and I needed a sideshot of their house. Thought I’d be in and out pretty quick so didn’t tell you, sorry about that” – How a grownup that deserves to run a business behaves at His F**king Job.

virtualchoirboy – NTA. Granted, there’s also not a lot you can do about it except report them to the FAA. Since he was doing the flying for commercial reasons, that means he needed to follow the small unmanned aircraft regulations part 107. One of the components of that is not flying over people who are not directly participating which he did by flying over you while you were in your yard. He may not have been pointing his camera at you, but it doesn’t appear that camera angle is a consideration.

DaRusty_Shackleford says:

I’m a drone pilot and unfortunately to photograph a house sometimes requires being over someone else’s property. Just like a regular camera, you have to back up enough to capture the entire scene. I’ve been approached by homeowners and explain why I’m there and I’ve never had an issue. Not all drone pilots use the same apps so we can’t always pull up the footage on site. The pilot should have offered to at least put the drone up to show you the area he was photographing.

A good question to ask is if they have their Part 107 license. If they don’t then they’re flying illegally and you can report them to the FAA for some hefty fines and probably call the cops.

TylerDurdenisreal says:

I am by zero f**king means condoning firing any g*n in to the air, but unless you’re firing a 1oz slug at a drone, bird or buckshot is not coming down with any reasonable amount of force. Falling buckshot might equal a less than stellar day, but birdshot (which is the only reasonable round to possibly use for a drone) most definitely won’t.

Were the couple justified in confronting the drone operator, or did they overreact to the situation? Follow the story below and share your thoughts in the comments!