Cops: Guy's Drone Films Windows of Medical Rooms

Patients were inside; man charged with surveillance
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 16, 2014 1:32 PM CDT
Cops: Guy's Drone Films Windows of Medical Rooms
File photo of a drone much like the one used.   (AP Photo)

In the age of drones, maintaining privacy apparently requires drawing the blinds—even when on an upper floor of a hospital. Police in Ulster, NY, charged a 49-year-old man with flying his camera-equipped drone outside the windows of a medical facility, reports the Daily Freeman of Kingston. Cops charged David Beesmer with unlawful surveillance, a felony, after patients and staffers at the Mid Hudson Medical Group building reported seeing his drone hovering 10 to 15 feet outside their windows.

In a Facebook post, Beesmer cops to a "huge error in judgment" but says he wasn't trying to spy on anyone, reports the Smoking Gun. He says he had taken his mom to the newly opened facility for a medical appointment and simply wanted to film the building itself. Police haven't described the confiscated footage, but Beesmer sounds like he's not giving up his hobby. “I will not stop droning," he writes. "This is the wave of the future ... and I WILL be a part of it." (More weird crimes stories.)

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