Drone Lost at Sea, Found and Returned, Cape Cod, Massachusetts
(June 16) After a trip to Martha’s Vineyard to find and return an earring, finding a drone, finding the owner of a wedding band that had been lost for a year it was time to work on returning the drone. The drone was in good condition less one missing propeller. I removed the battery and found a memory card. I cleaned off the contact and inserted the card into my computer. Bingo! Pictures and videos from 2019 to the day before I found drone. From the media I determined the owner’s car registration number and home state along with the resort he was staying at. With that information in hand, I went to the resort. First, I searched the parking lot as I remember seeing a red Subaru when I was making my previous return of a wedding band the day before. Dang, wrong registration plate, but I did see a Mercedes with a very similar plate number, and it was from Vermont.
The front desk was reluctant to give me any information and rightly so, I understand about privacy laws etc. So, I left them the information and my card. I also left some information on the windshield of the Mercedes before leaving to search for a lost hearing aid, which I did not find. I will go back and re-search the area with a different detector in hope for a better outcome. While I was on the search, the owner of the drone, Hank, called and we set up a time to meet and make the return.
Hank had been flying his drone at dusk when it took its AI a bit too far, banking hard left and downward, fast. This was the second time for the wayward drone to do something unexpected. This time its undesirable landing area was salt water. Hank tried to retrieve the drone but lost sight of it and could not find it nor did he find it the next day. That might have been because I had already found it.
The outcome was the best that could have happened, if nothing else Hank has the media memories from flights of the drone over the past 3 years. Is it time to back-up your memories? Something Hank and I will think of doing during this coming winter.
