It was after church earlier this summer, and Jennifer Youngman was relaxing on her porch in rural Virginia, cleaning her guns.
“The next thing I hear is ‘buzzzzzzz,” she tells As It Happens guest host Dave Seglins.
It was a small drone, operated by two men who had pulled over in a car near her driveway.
“Well, that made me angry,” she says.
Youngman says she keeps a close eye on strangers, because sometimes people come around to try to get a look at her famous neighbour, the actor Robert Duvall.
Youngman says she shot the drone to protect the privacy of her neighbour, actor Robert Duvall. (The Associated Press)
She suspects the drone flyers were trying to take pictures of Duvall’s property.
“They were trespassing in my airspace. They had harassed the cattle. Mr. Duvall had been harassed,” she says. “That was more ammunition than I needed.”
So when the drone came close, she raised her shotgun and pulled the trigger.
“And with that I blasted it to pieces.”
“I like to shoot, and I like to kill, so when you cross the line please stand still”
– Drone shooter Jennifer Youngman
Youngman tells As It Happens she’s not sure if it was legal to shoot down the drone, but she has no regrets.
“You don’t go droning on other people’s property,” she says.
As for the two men, she says they got the message. The two started walking toward the shotgun toting Youngman, but soon thought better of it.
She says they turned around and went back to their car. All she saw was dust.
Let Youngman’s philosophy about trespassers be a warning to others:
“I like to shoot, and I like to kill, so when you cross the line please stand still.”
