God Bless Kentucky

Posted on | July 31, 2015 | 73 Comments

“My daughter comes in and says, ‘Dad, there’s a drone out here flying.’”

When your daughter’s sunbathing by your family’s backyard pool and she tells you there’s a drone hovering over her, what are you going to do? Well, if you’re in Bullitt County, Kentucky, you go get your shotgun and blast that dadgum thing out of the sky:

A Hillview man has been arrested after he shot down a drone flying over his property — but he’s not making any apologies for it.
It happened Sunday night at a home on Earlywood Way, just south of the intersection between Smith Lane and Mud Lane in Bullitt County, according to an arrest report.
Hillview Police say they were called to the home of 47-year-old William H. Merideth after someone complained about a firearm.
When they arrived, police say Merideth told them he had shot down a drone that was flying over his house. The drone was hit in mid-air and crashed in a field near Merideth’s home.
Police say the owner of the drone claimed he was flying it to get pictures of a friend’s house — and that the cost of the drone was over $1,800.
Merideth was arrested and charged with first degree criminal mischief and first degree wanton endangerment. He was booked into the Bullitt County Detention Center, and released on Monday.
WDRB News spoke with Merideth Tuesday afternoon, and he gave his side of the story.
“Sunday afternoon, the kids – my girls – were out on the back deck, and the neighbors were out in their yard,” Merideth said. “And they come in and said, ‘Dad, there’s a drone out here, flying over everybody’s yard.'”
Merideth’s neighbors saw it too.
“It was just hovering above our house and it stayed for a few moments and then she finally waved and it took off,” said neighbor Kim VanMeter.
VanMeter has a 16-year-old daughter who lays out at their pool. She says a drone hovering with a camera is creepy and weird.
“I just think you should have privacy in your own backyard,” she said.
Merideth agrees and said he had to go see for himself.
“Well, I came out and it was down by the neighbor’s house, about 10 feet off the ground, looking under their canopy that they’ve got under their back yard,” Merideth said. “I went and got my shotgun and I said, ‘I’m not going to do anything unless it’s directly over my property.’”
That moment soon arrived, he said.
“Within a minute or so, here it came,” he said. “It was hovering over top of my property, and I shot it out of the sky.”
“I didn’t shoot across the road, I didn’t shoot across my neighbor’s fences, I shot directly into the air,” he added.
It wasn’t long before the drone’s owners appeared.
“Four guys came over to confront me about it, and I happened to be armed, so that changed their minds,” Merideth said.
“They asked me, ‘Are you the S-O-B that shot my drone?’ and I said, ‘Yes I am,'” he said. “I had my 40[-caliber] Glock on me and they started toward me and I told them, ‘If you cross my sidewalk, there’s gonna be another shooting.'”

You tell ’em, buddy! Hell, yeah!

An armed society is a polite society, as Robert Heinlein said, and it’s certainly not polite to send your drone out snooping over other people’s property. If a man thinks you’re messing with his daughters in Bullitt County, Kentucky? You had better consider yourself lucky that your drone was the only thing he shot.

(Via Memeorandum.)

Category: Crime, Kentucky

Comments

73 Responses to “God Bless Kentucky”

theoldsargesays
July 31st, 2015 @ 9:28 pm

Crap! You already brought that one up.
Like minded, us.
theoldsargesays
July 31st, 2015 @ 9:44 pm

What we obviously need then is to get Q Branch working on this immediately. Something the size of a Dunhill lighter perhaps.
theoldsargesays
July 31st, 2015 @ 9:50 pm

“Hey y’all, watch this…..oh sh¡t!”
theoldsargesays
July 31st, 2015 @ 9:53 pm

Not to mention that the first responders would’ve looked something like the Waco,Tx thing.
theoldsargesays
July 31st, 2015 @ 9:55 pm

He’s probably not being charged with the drine shoot down but rather discharging a firearm into the air in a residential neighborhood.
Hopefully the local prosecutor easeayaqay from this before it goes much further.
mole
July 31st, 2015 @ 10:26 pm

Whats lacking is basic civillity, if the drone boys had been polite enough to knock on doors and tell people they would be testing their new device between X & XX in the morning then any problems could have been sorted out then.

Also I have secret footage of the drone in action here.
Daniel Freeman
July 31st, 2015 @ 10:55 pm

From upthread, the criminal mischief charge may be code for vandalism.
melmoth
August 1st, 2015 @ 1:10 am

Bullitt County Kentucky. Just kind of lets you know you shouldn’t fuck around. Just the name alone.

Also, buying a drone just to get a brief glimpse of a 16 year old in a bikini is about the best definition of thirst that I could ever imagine. Poor guys’ wives are likely up around 3 bills. That 180 pound 16 year old is worth a high tech investment in Kentucky. I feel kind of sorry for them in a way but I support the rifleman 100%
Mike G.
August 1st, 2015 @ 1:12 am

Old RBS guy here. Seems like the tighter the beam width, the less power you’d need. But I haven’t been in radar mode for 35+ years.
melmoth
August 1st, 2015 @ 1:14 am

Yeah because all the girls in the US are cute…..
Daniel Freeman
August 1st, 2015 @ 2:13 am

One of the compensations of getting older is an ever-expanding standard of cute.
melmoth
August 1st, 2015 @ 2:25 am

Ha ha. “Ever expanding” No pun intended, eh?
Daniel Freeman
August 1st, 2015 @ 2:35 am

No pun intended, but sadly they do seem to be expanding.
Matthew T. Mason
August 1st, 2015 @ 6:03 am

No, he was charged with a felony for destroying the drone.
Dana
August 1st, 2015 @ 6:20 am

I grew up in the Bluegrass State, and I can tell you that there are a whole lot of cute girls in Kentucky. I even married one!
CaptDMO
August 1st, 2015 @ 6:50 am

Doesn’t mater,
Ever see those blacked out “image not available” bits on (ie) Google satellite maps, “street” images, or Garmin GPS “maps”?
CaptDMO
August 1st, 2015 @ 7:00 am

Oh, I don’t know.
I’ve heard some “rumors” about impressive shots with a .50 “Loudenboomer”
Of course, such rumors are classified higher that Hil’s Unoted States Department of State smart phone.
CaptDMO
August 1st, 2015 @ 7:05 am

“…make sure you’ve got friends or are armed cause the ones who are doing this for evil purposes will have the numbers.”
See, THAT is why high capacity magazines can NOT be “regulated”!!!!
CaptDMO
August 1st, 2015 @ 7:08 am

Or maybe ones OWN “Home Security” drone with old rechargeable camera flash units duct taped on.
Limited range EMP.
(Oh, excuse me, there’s a knock at my door….)
Art Deco
August 1st, 2015 @ 10:59 am

The drone owner, one David Boggs, is contending it never got closer than 272 feet from the ground. If these fellows are correct:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-441174.html

The pattern of #8 birdshot at 90 yards would be too spread out to injure much of anything. One of them reports killing a rabbit at 60 yards and the standards for clay fields are a 300 yard radius for all the shot to fall to the ground.
RichFader
August 1st, 2015 @ 9:35 pm

Sporting drones *is* going to be a thing. Either on a gun range or in cases like this.
Daniel Freeman
August 1st, 2015 @ 11:18 pm

I have personal experience with how unreliable all digital maps become when you’re dealing with something like, say, a nuclear reservation. It’s almost like they leaned on everyone to spread disinformation about stuff as basic as where the roads are.
melmoth
August 1st, 2015 @ 11:51 pm

Sure thing.