Huntington Beach man breaks drone by swatting it with his T-shirt
In this image from a video, a man prepares to swat a drone being flown by a team from Lucky 7 Drones in Huntington Beach on June 3.
A Huntington Beach company has filed a police report regarding a local resident who broke a $1,350 drone when he swatted it out of the air with his T-shirt.
A team from Lucky 7 Drones was flying the small DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter in the 200 block of 13th Street on June 3 when the incident occurred, according to Times Community News.
“We were just filming a little video about how to make some changes to the settings on the app for the drone,” said Mike Luzansky, an employee of Lucky 7 Drones. “Then this neighbor that I’ve never seen before just comes over and hits it.”
A video of the incident that the company posted on YouTube has had more than 140,000 views.
In the video, the man can be heard telling the crew, “If you put that over my house, I’m going to be pissed off.”
After swatting the drone, he said, “I don’t even think that’s legal.”
Officer Jennifer Marlatt of the Huntington Beach Police Department said the man told police his identity had been stolen recently and that the drone made him nervous.
“He didn’t want anyone spying on him,” Marlatt said.
Luzansky said the company won’t fly the drone above a home or in front of windows and that the crew stuck to the street.
“There was no one around,” Luzansky said.
He added that although the area gets busy on weekends, it wasn’t when the video was shot.
Lucky 7 Drones, an online company that sells drones and accessories, recently moved to Huntington Beach from Las Vegas and is seeking a location to open a shop.
“Right now, we are just trying to raise awareness that drones are here to stay and it’s not OK to vandalize them,” Luzansky said. “If he would’ve come over and talked to us, it would’ve been fine.”
Neither the police nor Lucky 7 Drones has identified the man by name.
Company employees have visited the man’s home in an attempt to get him to pay for damage to the drone’s frame and camera lens.
Marlatt said no arrest has been made.
Pritchett wrote this story for the Huntington Beach Independent.
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