Woman shocked to see camera drone hovering at her window

Press

A woman in Devon said she has been left shocked and scared after seeing a drone’s camera peering into her front room while she drank tea.

Christina Daw, a town and district councillor, says her and husband Peter now feel vulnerable after the drone was spotted hovering outside her house at Palmerstone Park.

Coun Daw said the drone, which had a camera lens attached, was hovering outside her living room window for around two minutes on Wednesday, September 9 shortly before 5pm.

Police said they had no reports of drones flying in the area at that time.

She said: “I was getting ready to go out to a council meeting and was sitting in my living room having a cup of tea with Peter when I saw this drone pointing with a camera about 10-20 metres away.

“It was extremely noisy and a funny shape. If you believed in aliens you would have thought it was them.

“What was more perturbing is that they looked into the house and they must have seen us because I haven’t got any nets or blinds so they could have seen right through.”

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can now be operated them on a smartphone or tablet.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) sets the rules on drones which must never be flown beyond the normal unaided “line of sight” of the person operating it – this is generally measured as 500m (1,640ft)horizontally or 400ft (122m) vertically

They must always be flown at least 50m (164ft) away from a person, vehicle, building or structure and not within 150m (492ft) of a congested area or large group of people, such as a sporting event or concert.

Coun Daw said after passing by her window the drone headed along her back garden and across to nearby Ashley Rise.

“We looked over the fence and saw a gentleman in his 50s controlling the drone,” she added.

“I shouted to him and he did nothing but just carried on and acted as if he didn’t hear us even though I’m sure he did.

“I thought, ‘what are you putting it in my house and around my property for?’

“I felt very vulnerable as my property is on the corner so they could see the front, side and back of the house. To me it was an invasion of privacy.”

“I thought somebody would break in,” she added.

“If it had just been there for a few seconds then you could perhaps think somebody was doing it by accident, but it hovered for about two minutes so they would have got a good shot into the window.”

“It was a big shock and my husband was very startled.”

At a Town Council meeting held on Monday, September 28, PC Mat Collier said that the incident has not been reported to police and that they have had no reports of drones flying in the area.