Remember how that $1200 drone appeared, apparently disabled, in the middle of Fulton Street a couple months back and some people decided to take it inside and post it on Craigslist? Well, situations like that are becoming increasingly commonplace across the country and in S.F., as Valleywag and CBS 5 report, as more and more well-off geeks buy quad-copter drones to make fun aerial movies around the city.
Drone owners have taken to posting to forums like this one complaining of "flyaways," when their precious little drones fly off and stop responding to commands. Manufacturers blame user error (like dead batteries?), but users blame manufacturers, claiming that the failsafes that are supposed to return the drone home have malfunctioned.
All in all it seems like a perfectly predictable bi-product of the drone trend. Did anyone of the 70,000 or so people at Burning Man find this guy's drone? It has footage of his camp on it, Stardust Casino, FYI.
Even SFist's own Daisy Barringer posted to Twitter yesterday about her brother losing a drone in the Mission.
Did you or your friend find a drone on your roof in the Mission near 23rd & Harrison????? It belongs to my brother. PLEASE @msg me!
— daisy barringer (@daisy) September 8, 2014
And here are your tax dollars at work! The SFFD has rescued at least one drone from a tree recently, the way they use to rescue errant felines.
Big thanks to the SF Fire Dept for adding 'drone recovery' to their list of reasons for being awesome. pic.twitter.com/kl70sghslI
— Eddie Codel (@ekai) July 3, 2014
Not sure that's the best use of firefighters' time.