A drone operator searching for lost dogs in northern Maine has been fired at twice – one of which struck his aircraft – in the last month.
Robert Russell, who runs an aerial-search business, had first sent his drone up over Corinth a few weeks ago to look for two beagles.
While the drone was flying, it was suddenly hit by something, which Russell quickly determined was a bullet.
Russell’s drone was also shot at over Orrington earlier this week – and though that shot missed Russell got a picture of the alleged shooter from the drone.
“The guy was firing at my drone in Orrington near Dow Road,” Russell said. “Thankfully he did not hit the drone, but he was trying.”
Russell, 50, owns 2A TAC Drone Services, a Barrington, NH-based search-and-rescue company that uses drones to help locate missing pets, livestock, and sometimes even people.
“I’ve been doing this for three years,” the retired military veteran and ex-cop told The Maine Wire. “It’s a very rare thing to get shot at. Now it’s happened twice in the last month.”
Public reaction to the shootings is mixed, although Facebookers seem to have a lot of sympathy with the drone haters, saying if a drone were over their property they might very well take a shot at it too.
Russell responded to critics, defending his business, while speaking with The Maine Wire.
“I am a huge proponent of privacy and property rights,” he said. “But you don’t own the airspace over your property.
“A drone has as much right to fly over your property as a helicopter or a plane,” he added. “Shooting at one is a federal offense.”
Russel posted the following update to Facebook after his drone was shot in Corinth earlier in September, stating that the Maine State Police and the FBI Boston field office have been notified of the incident:
Russell, licensed by the FAA as a commercial drone pilot, uses what he calls thermal $25,000 drones to find things such as missing animals and people.
He stressed that when he’s working his drone, he’s not doing so to snoop in your bedroom window.
Russell was proud to say that his latest dog search was successful – he found “Bobo,” a dog that went missing Friday from Brewer, in Orrington on Wednesday.
“It was a group effort,” he said “There were many volunteers involved.”
Russell’s fees vary depending on the mission, based on the expenses associated with a particular search.
They can run from roughly $700 to $1,000, and sometimes even more depending on the complexity of the operation including his travel time, room and board expenses, etc.
Russell discussed the shootings in a Facebook video just before Bobo was found.
