on June 26th 2024 the Lake County Sheriff's Office received a call that a bullet hole was found in the payload the Drone was carrying in Claremont Florida deputies arrived at the scene and Witnesses directed them to 72-year-old Dennis WN hello how you doing ma'am Sheriff's Office hi hi is your husband home by chance sure can I to talk to him okay hi when questioned wi admitted to shooting at the Drone with a 9mm pistol how you doing sir can't complain what's up so I'm going to be got a wasp buger head oh [ __ ] yeah wait a minute let me yeah let's close before he gets in the house what the hell is so it's actually it's actually in reference to that so at some point today did a drone fly over your house and you shoot at it I'm going be real blood with you and ask yeah you did yeah okay why'd you shoot at it because I thought it was somebody turn around playing games on my house I got you where did you see the drone at right above me can you can you walk out and just kind of show me right there sitting straight above it straight above me do you have Anya hovered lowered some kind of cord down or something turned around and sent something back up and then after it was shot at it turned around went North gotcha okay what'd you shoot at it with 9 mm okay all right um how much trouble am I in quite a bit I'm You' been honest with me I'm be honest with you uh quite a bit actually so there's a federal charger goes along with it there's a felony charger goes along with it that's kind of like where we're at okay okay what what happens what happens from what well before we continue this conversation I'm really just for thank for you being honest you really just took me off off guard I'm not going Li what I what am I going to do I'm going to lie true all right sir you have the right to remain s anything you say put me under arrest I'm just going to Rand you the Miranda warning just so I can get out that way you can not continue our conversation okay I understand a Miranda warning I don't have to speak to you unless I want an attorney okay I got you let me just read you this real quick and then uh we'll go from there okay uh you have the right to remain silent goe sege 26 I'm already talking to him all right Z you have the right to remain silent anything you say can will be used against you in a court of law you have the right to talk to a lawyer and have him or her present with you while you're being questioned canot afford to hire a lawyer one will be appointed to represent before any questioning if you wish you want to head by underneath it get out the rain you can decide at any time to exercise these rights and not answer any questions or make any statements you're understand each of these rights I've explained to you having these rights in mind you which to talk to us now yes I understand my rights y I got got you so it was hovering above your house it lowered something down no it just hovered above my house you said something about the Poli system a cord yeah a cord or something it stayed there for about 10 minutes mhm and yes a shot at it okay I got you and it the cord went up and turn it turned cuz it was headed it was Facing East okay cuz that's East right yeah yeah I was working on my pool equipment oh you outside when you notice it oh oh I was working on my pool equipment gotcha right on the outside of the house I can show you where it is cuz it's still not evidently got blown out from the lightning strike last week got I'm just finding out so it came over it went over my neighbor's head or my neighbor's house came over came over my house stayed there it was pointing e you say it was sitting over your property line yeah okay oh yeah most definitely okay that's the only reason okay all right well want can you do me a favor boss you just hang out right here for me I'm make a phone call right and see where we go from here well I appreciate your honesty sir but I actually thought it was some good I I I I hear you so would you mind showing me like where you were at when you did it when you shot it yeah I'm so curious where it was so this is where you were when you shot it no I was in I was back there so show me show me where you were and where that drone was right here working on this so you're working on your Transformer I'm working I was working on this cuz this thing the salt sensor is bad I got you so you're sitting here working on it what what happen so walk walk me through like like I I heard a woring mhm which I knew I heard it before so I knew what the sound was I saw it come over you saw I fly over houses or follow the road fly over the house okay from here I'm looking at the house it turns around came over was over my driveway when it stopped you're for sure it was over your driveway yeah what were you thinking when you saw this thing over your driveway that was some smart ass kid that got a gift for for graduation and was playing peeping Tom him okay so you thought he was kind of spying on you and your wife I was going to go in the pool but I after I saw that and we had drone made you feel very uncomfortable about it being over you yeah and there there's been a there was this I'll call him a gentleman there a guy that lives in the development uhhuh that has done it before and he's been warned okay I got you stop coming over people's houses I got you okay cuz he's po he's even posted the stuff on Facebook right so so you're standing here I'm standing here you see this drone up in the sky it's sitting there it's hovering hovering hovering as I said it was Facing East I actually went in the house got the pistol right came out turned around waved like this move it just stayed there I fired one shot at it 15 20 seconds later I well it was about 5 seconds later it pulls this rope up so there was a rope that went came that came down you can see a rope coming from it that was on the ground it was something a line of some sort I don't know what you know turned around retrieved it turned North and went back over the houses okay so when you saw it could you tell if it was over your property or not if it was yeah could you tell where that rope or pulley was laying or where where it dropped off at it didn't come down all the way how about how high would you say that drone was it was above that tree as I'm standing here it was above that tree okay and the the line came down to the left of the tree which is what gab would turned around and said it's over my property okay and as I did anyone come up and ask you about it or say anything to you about it nothing nothing no nobody rang the bell nothing nothing I went back so you've had issues with drones before kind of flying over your house and yeah one with the gentleman in here and he's posted it on Facebook pictures aerial pictures of the of your guys property not just mine but multiple people but he has posted photos of name is Joe skus he lives over on uh L drive on the other side I got you okay so what I'm going to have you do I'm going to have you fill out a sworn saing first and foremost okay I I want to get what you just told me on paper pretty much just how you told me okay I'm probably going to get one from your wife too just to just to hide that in there okay no problem um where's that pistol at by chance it's in the house oh okay do you know where at yeah it's on the counter okay do you care if I go in and take a look at it and just get a photo of it there's there's a round still in the chamber that's fine do you know where you got the casing for it too and everything or oh the casing should be re out here I didn't you didn't even pick it up no I didn't probably didn't even think about it huh no well you're lucky we're looking for it now didn't catch didn't catch the lawn more gu yeah someone's lawn mow find but I'll come back out here and I'll look for it again let's let's head over there we'll uh we'll get you started in this statement okay not a problem I'm yeah you're being honest with me I'm being honest with you I put am I you know what's the best thing who do try to lie and then try to remember what I lied about it's easier I turn yeah honestly he's the best is the best method in my opinion my impression from how going my impression tell us yeah when I when I went it was directly over here and you walked to right there no I fired from back there I had that part wrong okay I fired from back there I was working on my poola it lowered some kind of line or something down okay it was hovering long enough that I left working on a pool went in got the gun out of my safe came back out and it was still here did you give any indications for the Dr that you didn't want it over you or around your house oh beforehand before even going in the house I was waving it I was waving it that way okay you know like to go away where were you at you mirand yeah he's already mirand he's already be happy yeah I'm uh I'm detective land office I'm Dennis W Dennis w y all right so yeah just I guess from the top let me know uh I already he's already Miranda and looking for a lawyer I'm well I turned around admitted I shot at it yeah you pick up the casing no it's still out here somewhere got to be here okay this is where I was if you find it don't grab it all right I was here working on this panel okay the pool system is not is not running right after a lightning strike last week I turned around I heard the woring which I know what the noise is I've seen drones before drones came came over the house turned around hovered over my house I looked up I'm think and I honestly was thinking it's either my neighbor Joe scarus on the other side of the development who has done this before he has hovered over properties and posted them on Facebook really annoyed everybody in the neighborhood or that it was some kid they got a graduation presid for graduation or whatever and he's been a smartass okay turned around waved it numerous times it didn't move what it look like a drone yeah like describe it black I'd have to say it had probably had three probably four propells on it four propells okay uh how big I mean how far up in the air was it a little hovering a little bit High higher than my tree higher than your tree this uh tree right the magnolia the Magnolia right there little above it it was there to get wet look turned around it was I had waved it off it didn't move it was Facing East I know which way it was facing it was Facing East waved it off nothing happened he just sit there and hover yeah swapping shs don't mind that yeah you're okay I actually took the time went in the house opened my sa took the weapon out came out and it's still hust I waved at it again nothing I popped around aim at it tried to PP tried to aim as best I could and I fired one way you H it I doubt it 15 20 seconds later it charged off and went down way over the houses so was it like over the CAC or no it was over my S got it was over my driveway did you walk over there to see cuz I mean no I did not okay cuz I mean I was too pissed off at it really but for it to stay in Hover where you standing at right here I came back out here I was here see I mean so look stand right there and look what what what is beyond past there like pass the back and pass you know this house over I mean Lake the lake hold up a map real quick I don't know I don't you're right there is a lake over there but we're standing there's a lake here your house here and then there's a lake further out is this your house the pool right in there you're saying you sh pretty much over the corner of your house right and there's two houses there here I mean when I was driving down there was a a small little kid that was walking across the street I mean look look at the trajectory I see what you're saying Hey to concern myself like what his camera his his home of security covers he doesn't record it doesn't okay okay all right um one time one time okay where's your firearm now can we take a look at it yeah that's where we were headed when you had showed up all right yeah let's go take a look at it um round I've been looking round got to be out of here so like a 9 mm copper color uh brass color I haven't been able to find it all right yeah I guess I going to take a look at the gun and uh how long you been living here for 2007 have you ever called on the Drone that you saw before the me did you tell did anyone tell law enforcement report to law enforcement I don't know if anybody told law enforcement I don't need another one please I lost too much equipment now you don't have any guns on you right he doesn't have any on them all right they're fine you're fine I'm just asking I'm just hey h firefighter North 28 years Jersey City New Jersey he voluntarily handed the firearm over to deputies yeah uh do you mind putting this in your car uh yeah I am loading everything um so that was a Walmart drone that was were they practicing payload drops so they practic say anything Sor so it no no at first it came out as they were doing drops and then what they do is they have two visual operators there was a car parked two streets up right after Oz o old whatever the O Street is not that one but the other one just passed it on that side and there were two people that said they were standing over there and um they said I asked and I said was it over the culdesac now they should have some sort of GPS something saying where it was and even if it was um you know was where it was the fact that I did shoot at it and wasn't concerned about where the round landed I guess was the big one of the biggest headaches yeah so I'm just getting uh I'm calling um one of the the Drone supervisors so uh we're going to discuss it a little bit um but we'll figure it out at that point okay I'm going to go speak to wife is that okay yeah yell will yell she's in probably in here watching no she's already very upset okay well I'm not going to yell at her I'm oh no nothing to yell at her about I mean she didn't do anything dumb she's in right um guys down that's may all [Music] right you know they turn around and notifies people that they we doing well they don't that's the thing they don't have to that's like a that's a service that they provide where they they deliver packages for drones um it has been on the news you've heard about it you never heard about Amazon or I have heard that Walmart was doing it yeah okay but at that point in time when I heard that Walmart was doing it it was on that side of 27 well I mean they were talking about on that what they do concerned neighbors came over to check on the situation and he explained it to them as well are wav off everything never left I went inside went into the safe got the weapon came out tried to shoot off again it didn't move I fired one round at it now they say I hit it so I must be a good shot or else it's not that far away so I'm under all sorts of they said there $10,000 worth of damage to the Drone and all sorts of stuff so I'm going to wind up having to find a real good defense lawyer you want to do you you ready to transport now you want to go get the wife and yeah you don't mind what's her name sir want shoes her name so what's your okay she's probably cry probably he wants to talk to her real quick if you don't mind who he want to talk to me Landa sure no the husband oh okay he's about to go okay I guess I'm how you taking me to jail you're going to have to come to the jail I don't we we don't well if you want you can call bondsman and tell him and they typically charge about 10% for Bond you can pay that and he he you could go pick him up or if you have cash you just want to pay the cash you just pay the whole it'll be lake Lake County ja bonds or anything you just look one up on your phone Google about a good lawyer he doesn't know one him you can handle all that tomorrow there's no rush for all that I don't know where I'm going to be grab I'm be up there yet I'm saying you can bond out in a couple hours got to get shoes on too yeah if you want to grab some shoes or else give me ones right inside if they but you know you could be out by the end of tonight and then you start work you'll have time it's just just got to book you through and you can bun right out oh uh you going to keep the weapon i' like my holster if nothing else we're going to take everything and then we'll give you proper okay it's all documented it'll be held in safe storage at the Sheriff's Office and then when it's all done you get it back so we going to Lake county is that one on 50 no it's up in taries it's up inar can I follow somebody it'll be a few hours so I would I wouldn't come if it would make you no I mean I I don't just don't know where I'm going or anything that's pad po Bobby tell Bobby you need to need to get up to the jail two baries right okay oh God she I guess she heard the shot she said it was around 3:00 oh yeah she probably heard at 3:00 that's he when he was telling her she was like oh is that what we heard at around 3 or earlier or whatever yes and then what is it two or three little kids running around yeah so when I showed up the one little one that was across the street one he would heal noxious gases for however many years how about this two cups want coffee in the front whatever it's come whatever you need to do by protocol well no we we have you you've been fine there's no issues we're not you know yeah just let me know if it's too tight right yeah I can't breathe I can't breathe I can't breathe he didn't answer his oh Bobby yeah he's got to be home I left he pH there their pocket no honey take a picture of me she's going to hit you and we're not going to say anything I know that all right you ready gu so it's I love you okay we'll see you later don't cryar you got to go up 27 that Bobby talk to him before I leave Bobby you go and start and I'll I'll work on this I promise Bobby wait don't up on your he was arrested and charged with shooting at an aircraft criminal mischief for damages over $1,000 discharging a firearm in a public or residential area and was transported to Lake County Jail fortunately no one was injured and no other properties were damaged by the gunfire Jesus midgets come in here all right we got it okay all right yep just going to Buck you up real quick yep about happens there you go you can't shoot it you don't own the air you can't be doing this