Rural homeowner flies off the handle when she sees a drone hovering over her property, wonders if she's wrong: 'People don't like it when strange men fly drones over their fenced backyards'

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    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. Fong 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.
  • 03
    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.
  • 04
    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 foota
  • 05
    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?
  • 06
    No threats were made, no cops were called, but we felt pretty justified in our I 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?
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    OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the as be the a ☐ De: I chewed out a drone operator flying over my house who turned out to be a realtor. Now my neighbor (the house seller) says I'm TA for overreacting.
  • 08
    ThePhi... 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.
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    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.
  • 10
    Scary-Welder8404 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 Fig Job.
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    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.
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    DaRusty_Shackleford 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.
  • 13
    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.
  • 14
    Ramsputee ESH. He could of been politer but it sounds like he was just matching your energy.
  • 15
    GrundgeArchangel ESH. If you are screaming and acting like you did, I wouldn't engage with you either. He didn't gaslight you, pick another buzzword to help make you feel justified. People use drone for several legitimate business reasons, you just went to "He's creepy and taking pictures of me", which is judgemental and arrogant of you. He sould have explained what he was there for and respected your privacy.
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    meatbeater YTA and should get some therapy for those anger issues
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    rrhunt28 I can see asking what he was doing, but once he pointed out he was taking photos of the house for sale you should have left him alone. So that means YTA
  • 18
    Any-Experience6327 So why didn't he just say that," He did "He finally answered that he was taking pix for a real estate listing." Yta
  • 19
    reediculous45 If I was approached by you that way I wouldn't show it to you either. Get over yourself. ESH
  • 20
    United-Advertising67 "What's with the drone?" "Real estate listing pics for that house." "Kay." All that interaction needed to be. Why do people have such poor social skills and why does everyone feel the constant need to flex, threaten, posture, and perform on each other. ESH.

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