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As the other commenter pointed out, no charges. This was in the early days of remote pilotry. After a long night of police questioning, culminating in LAPD speaking to his parents on the phone, LAPD presumed he wasn't a terrorist, and instead just an impulsive and inquisitive youth, so he was free to go. His quadcopter was confiscated and not returned, he apologized to the oil company, and that was pretty much the end of it, although I'm sure he ended up in some sorts of undesirable databases. Somewhat funnily once the FAA regs caught up he became a legitimate remote pilot and has performed many oil and gas related inspections, although not in LA.


As the Mythbusters so generously taught us, "the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down."



I'm curious at the legal principle which permits confiscating private property without charge.


This happens all the time, property gets seized at the merest suspicion of crime (whether or not it was actually prosecuted) and is often not returned. Jon Oliver did a piece on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks



As the other commenters pointed out, this is established legal principle in USA.

The police will even gleefully crush with a bulldozer such property: https://mobile.twitter.com/NYPDnews/status/73262865294963916...




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