A curious thing happened in Dickson on Thursday this week. A neighbour was talking to a friend in his backyard when they became aware of a noise above them.
To their surprise, they saw that a drone was sitting above them, with what looked like a camera pointing down at them. They walked out onto the street and spotted a couple watching the skyline where the drone was flying.
The annoyed neighbour walked down the street and asked what was going on. They were told that the guy was from a real estate agency and the other person was a photographer with clearance (permission) to fly over people’s houses – backyards.
By now they were joined by another neighbour who had heard the noise and came to see for herself what was happening.
In the conversation that followed, the real estate agency rep and their photographer insisted that what they were doing was normal, that they had been doing this (flying over neighbourhoods) for six months and that this was the first time anyone had objected. To which was replied, “maybe this because no-one knows this is what you are doing?”
Part of the justification was that there was the prospect of a sale by the real estate agency in this street. But at this point there was no such sale – and more to the point – which was not answered, why were they flying the drone over peoples’ backyards up and down the whole street?
Since the incident, a couple of other neighbours have asked what that noise was all about – and to put it politely, they are not happy.
Yes we have all accepted Google and My Maps – being images of neighbourhoods taken using satellites; we have accepted the electricity authority flying helicopters around the neighbourhood to check on trees near lines; and real estate agents using drones on houses that are for sale – but real estate agents and their contractors flying drones over everyone’s backyards? Is that a line too far? Why do they need to do that?
The conversation around here is just how much of this style of intrusion should we accept.
We have sent an email through to the real estate agency – so we will see what they say.
Your thoughts?
Has anyone else experienced something similiar?
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