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Video: Drone Loses Battle Against Shirtless Man
A drone was no match for an angry neighbor who smashed the small hovering copter to the ground. While some people might be excited about cool videos filmed by drones, the man who lived next door to a drone business feared he was being spied on (which has happened in the San Fernando Valley).
Employees from Lucky 7 Drones, a Huntington Beach-based company, were flying their $1,300 drone for an instructional video when a shirtless man swatted it to the ground with his t-shirt. A YouTube video released by the company shows the drone flying just three feet off the ground when a man enters from off-camera, yelling "if you put that over my house, I'm going to be pissed off." The man, wearing only his swimsuit, then winds up and swings his t-shirt to bat the drone out of the air. The four-propeller drone is knocked to the ground, smashing its propellers. Emerging victoriously from the man vs. drone battle, the man walks off camera, shouting, "I don't even think that's legal."
As it turns out, the drone's short-lived flight was legal. While some cities have regulated or banned the flying of drones, Huntington Beach has not, according to The O.C. Register. The shirtless man may have deemed the area a no-fly-zone and told investigators he thought they might be trying to spy on him, but apparently the company was clear for take off. "People are like, why are you flying in the middle of the street, but we weren't flying high or up and down the street or over people's homes," according to Mike Luzansky of Lucky 7 Drones. "We were just showing off the (drone's) sensitivity control."
The company has filed a police report with the Huntington Beach Police Department and have said they plan to sue the man in small claims court if he doesn't pay for the damage to the drone, according to NBC. The case is now awaiting review by the Orange County District Attorney.
While Enrique Iglesias may have lost in his recent encounter with a drone, you can see in the video below that this time the drone is the loser.
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