Most people, when a neighbor’s drone buzzes their backyard one too many times, do something reasonable: complain to the HOA, put up a “No Drones” sign, maybe key the guy’s mailbox out of spite. A Florida man decided the appropriate response to a drone dispute was to allegedly offer a jail inmate $5,000 to kill the neighbor entirely, thereby solving the drone problem and also becoming a felon in one tidy transaction.
According to authorities, the plan came together the way most Florida murder-for-hire plots do: badly, and with a paper trail. The man is accused of reaching out to someone behind bars to arrange the hit, apparently unaware that inmates are not generally known for their discretion, or their access to functioning hitmen, or their interest in doing favors for free.
Investigators say the arrangement fell apart before anyone was hurt, which is good news for the neighbor, who presumably still has no idea his airspace violations nearly got him killed. It is less good news for the accused, who now faces charges considerably more serious than “annoying” or “should really read up on easement law.”
We would like to point out, gently, that Florida already has a legal process for drone disputes. It’s called a phone call to the sheriff’s non-emergency line. It does not, as far as we know, require a bail bondsman afterward.
We did not make this up. WKNO has the receipts.