Burglars use toy chopper to steal

[Tiaan Roux]

From News24:

Burglars use toy chopper to steal

2010-02-07 19:33

Taipei - Taiwan police have arrested two men accused of using a toy helicopter to search homes before burgling them, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Taipei police arrested Chang Chen-cheng and seized the model aircraft, plus stolen goods, at his home, and are searching for his partner in crime Ah Hsiang.

The pair have allegedly committed a dozen burglaries using the toy helicopter, the Apple Daily said.

According to police, Chang and Ah Hsiang would ride motorbikes in North Taiwan to search for suitable victims, then release the toy radio-controlled helicopter.

The helicopter would fly to the window of an apartment, take photos of the inside of the apartment, and send the images to a computer inside the car.

If the photos revealed there was no one in the apartment, Chang and Ah Hsiang would allegedly break in and carry out the burglary, the Apple Daily said.

The helicopter was powered by a battery and measured 21cm and could remain airborne for 12 minutes - with little noise.

- SAPA

[Mark Colwell]

I have some of those chinese toy choppers???

[Gary Mortimer]

FPV's great eh

[Rory Paul]

Wait till the paparazzi figure out they can do the same thing.....can you say grounded?

[Gary Mortimer]

Thats why the regs have been written the way they have in the UK. The CAA saw that one coming.

FPV is a UAS or rather having a camera onboard makes it a UAS and as such since the 1st of Jan 2010 you could be prosecuted for releasing images gathered in a manner that is well, dodgy. You do not need to have an autopilot onboard for your airframe to be a UAS.

breaking news... on ETV breakfast show interview with SACAA commenting on last weeks ICAO UAS meeting which was held here. I am pretty sure he said, UAS in NAS framework in place by September. Humm lets see.

[Morli]

where did the computer inside the car come from when the guys were riding the bikes? Is there a third party to the crime? and any idea what heli was that ? Sooner or later some one is bound to find such usage of FPV :) BTW way these guys won't be posting their video on U tube or else were.