Here’s one more thing you have to worry about: Drones sent by neighbors to spy on you in your home. Police arrested a Utah man with a history of voyeurism and his girlfriend on suspicion of flying a drone was spotted on area “patrols.”
The drone videotaped people in their bathroom or bedrooms in the city of Orem, investigators said. One apparent target who spotted the tiny machine outside of his bathroom window chased it in his truck and grabbed it when it landed. He found several videos of people on the drone’s photo card and delivered it to police in December, investigators told the Salt Lake Tribune.
“The citizen who located the drone was familiar with drones and had a similar one himself,” according to a search warrant unsealed this week in court, the Desert News reported. “There [were] multiple videos recording individuals inside their residences through windows. Some of the recordings were multiple stories high in apartment complexes.”
The cops posted a photo of the drone on their Facebook page along with a grainy picture of a man, his face disguised by police, apparently operating the controls for the eye-in-the-sky lifted from the drone photo card.
“Are you missing a quadcopter?” the police asked in their post. “Are you looking over your shoulder to see if the police are following you? Have you been convicted of voyeurism in the past? Would you like to turn yourself in before we have to come knocking at your door, maybe on Christmas morning, with a warrant?”
The police warned: “We know who you are but let’s make this easier on everyone.”
No one came forward, but police said they nabbed the couple after tracking the suspects from an image of a license plate retrieved from the drone.
Aaron Dennis Foote, 39, and his girlfriend Terisha Lee Norviel, 34, have both been charged with a single misdemeanor count of voyeurism using concealed or disguised electronic equipment.
Foote pleaded guilty in 2008 to a droneless charge of voyeurism at a local tanning salon and was ordered to complete anti-voyeur treatment, the Tribune reported.
His court hearing is set for next week. Norviel’s court date is in March.
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