A Deep Cove couple is warning their neighbours after they got some unwanted attention from drone-enabled looky-loos.
Margaret Taylor was in her lounge on Tuesday evening when she noticed the drone hovering outside her Panorama Drive home.
“I just happened to look out and there was this drone looking in the window at me. I was just sort of shocked at first. It’s like a camera pointed in your face almost, just a few feet off our veranda,” she said. “I thought ‘What the hell are you doing?’ It just made me feel uncomfortable.”
The drone then hovered upward to the upper level of the home where her husband Max Taylor saw it.
“I looked at it and it shot up at a very high speed up high and then zoomed back towards (Panorama) Park,” he said.
Margaret reported the drone incident to the North Vancouver RCMP’s non-emergency number but the couple were left wondering who the Peeping Tom was.
“It’s probably some kid goofing off but on the other hand, how do you know they’re not checking out to see whether there’s anybody home?” Margaret asked.
Max suspects it was someone professional based on the look of the drone.
“This was not some toy. This was a very fancy machine,” he said.
The Taylors describe the drone as being white with flashing lights and at least one foot in height.
Cpl. Richard De Jong, North Vancouver RCMP spokesman, acknowledged the flying visitor might be disquieting but said it doesn’t sound as though any criminal laws were broken.
“It’s a grey area,” he said.
Drones could potentially be used for criminal mischief, harassment, voyeurism or putting other aircraft at risk, De Jong said, but getting the Crown to lay charges would be difficult. “It would have to be documented. Somebody would have to take pictures. We’d have to identify who the operator is. ... Chances are, the person who complained didn’t even see the operator,” he said. “It would be pretty hard to prove.”
Right now, there is no way to intercept and track where a drone is being controlled from but that’s something various police agencies across Canada are looking into, according to Sara Johnston, Transport Canada spokeswoman.
In the meantime, De Jong said anyone who is bothered by a drone outside their home should report it to the RCMP’s non-emergency number so police can look into it.
Transport Canada is also looking to bring in updated legislation to deal with the growing popularity of the unmanned aerial vehicles. Among the proposed amendments being considered are mandatory drone registration and marking, licensing with knowledge testing and minimum age requirements.
Under current guidelines, operators are advised keep their drones at least nine kilometres away from any airport, aerodrome or heliport and fly only during the day and only in good weather. They should also keep their drones 150 metres away from people, vehicles, animals and buildings. Flying over crowds is not recommended. Anyone using a drone for non-recreational purposes must hold a special flight operations certificate from Transport Canada, which are granted on case-by-case evaluations.
