Yep, likewise. Really made me feel for you DonMania.
It seems you took it with good grace & humour, but I don’t know how. That post made me angry, then sad, then farking furious., and I reckon those neighbors would have actually moved out by now, with all I’d have had to say to them, if it were me.
Here is how it went down. I am walking around with my drone in my bedroom just putting it back in its case as we are about to take my daughter to the neighborhood playground. My dog starts barking at the window so I look out and see my neighbor looking at me through the window (she is on her side of the fence kind of leaning over) while on the phone. As soon as she sees me, she kind of hides. I am not sure what is going on so finish putting the drone away.
My wife now comes over and says that the neighbors are weird but we should get going with our daughter.
My daughter and I head down to the garage to get our daughter’s bike. We enter through the side door. As soon as we open the main garage door I see a cop outside with his gun out. I will be honest, I froze and quickly put my daughter behind me. The cop comes in and very professionally asks if I have a weapon. I say no. He then asks if there could be someone with a rifle in the house. Now, I am thinking about my wife (still in the apartment) and if somehow someone with a gun has made his way into the apartment in the 3-5 minutes my daughter and I have been in the garage. At this point my wife comes down with an ashen look on her face because there are 2 more cops with automatic rifles pulled out on either side of our garage.
The main cop seeing my daughter and my wife (and, to be honest, the complexion of my skin) has put two and two together by this stage. So he says “thank you”, steps outside, and curtly says “you have made a mistake” to my neighbor and her boyfriend who are now standing outside staring at me.
I go outside and ask the lady “did you think I had a rifle? It was a drone!”. She avoids eye contact and rushes inside. Her boyfriend looks at me sheepishly and says “glad it was nothing”. The cops have very quickly left by this stage.
It is now that I start shaking. To be honest, I still hadn’t considered anything racist.
As we are walking my daughter goes “Daddy, did the police think you were a bad man?”. I am still shaking but now starting to get angry. I could easily have been shot in front of my daughter. Then, I say to my wife (who is white) “Do you think they called the police because I am…” I didn’t even finish my sentence and she looks at me and nods and just holds my hand.
Look, I am not trying to be melodramatic. A lot worse happens to African Americans. A LOT worse. But for a moment it could have happened to me. In San Francisco. The most liberal city in the US. Luckily the cops were well trained and de-escalated the situation immediately.
The neighbors moved out a couple of months later without ever apologizing. Our new neighbors are amazing so that is good.
Hopefully because they had the depth to feel ashamed & felt they had to, even if they didn’t have enough humility to apologise.
All up though, … that is a good end and the best part of the story.
Not sticking up for your neighbours, but everyone is constantly on edge in the US, or so I have found, particularly white folk.
It’s sad really for humans to live with that constant paranoia, any wonder some of them go off the deep end.
Yeah, … but you’re way beyond the edge when you can mistake one of these, …
For one of these.
That’s not normal US paranoia levels, surely?
Terrible DM that your family had to go through that. I’m not even sure what the supposed offence was though - isn’t it legal to have a gun in your house?
The gun had four propellers, FOUR!!
What puts me on edge over there is being in a public place and thinking that literally anyone around me could be carrying a gun.
Still think that photo looks shopped (talking about the one posted originally) - look there is not even glare/reflection from the noon sun
I am not for a second doubting the stickers were on the car, just that pic - anyway apologies for having an opinion.
@DonMania - NYC not to be outdone on the crazy, literally left the office last night to a guy getting shot out the front. Then walk by two dozen NYPD with M15s and K9 dogs near my place (you know they stand around with their finger on the trigger 
)
Later found out it was due to H Clinton speaking at the venue
Not to be outdone on the crazy levels, gunman in Pittsburgh shot up a synagogue, 8 reported deaths. Vile
That’s the thing. What if I were a legal gun owner just walking around in my house cleaning my weapon or whatever it is that gun owners do? Anyway, am still here and my 4-propeller friend is still intact!
Shooting at a synagogue this morning in Pittsburgh. 11 dead as of the latest news. Suspect caught alive. Has a history of anti-semitic and anti-immigrant social posts. Has accused Trump of being a “globalist” (code for under the influence of Jewish people).
Country is falling apart.
America is eating itself
With all due respect, why are you there? No amount of money could ever get me to live in that country.
It’s definitely not about money. I only have a US citizenship so it’s the only place I can realistically work. I’ve lived in Australia and stay there permanently twice. Both times I was unsuccessful. My wife and daughter have dual US and EU citizenships so that’s an option. We are close to leaving hopefully in the next 24 months.
I kinda thought at least one of the early photos had at least a twinge of a photo-shopped vibe. But it must just be a funny “looked” rather than an “is”.
My favourite comment on the van was some twitter rascal who said something along the lines of it looking like “what Stephen Bannon would morph into if he was a Transformer”
That’s pretty funny
In the US at the moment. Got the morning paper and the usual brochures fell out of it. Had a look - and it turns out there’s a gun sale happening. Pretty scary looking guns for only $250. So offputting.
The latest shooting in a Synagogue is just heartbreaking. A bunch of seniors being mowed down in their place of worship.
I’d imagine minorities in the States would also be pretty on edge too, albeit for different, more rational reasons
