Drone crashes into NJ homeowner’s backyard — as panic over mystery sightings grips state
A drone fell out of the sky and crashed into a New Jersey homeowner’s backyard Thursday night — prompting the town’s mayor to even drive to the scene to survey the site himself.
The aircraft smashed down in a residential area of Pequannock Township in Morris County around 8:45 p.m. Thursday, according to police and dispatch audio.
Officials determined the craft was “a hobby or toy type of drone” and “not a large commercial or military grade drone,” the Pequannock Police Department told The Post.
It comes on the heels of New Jersey cops warning of possible “copycats.”
“What we think is it started as some sort of Picatinny Arsenal base surveillance drill or operation but once it exploded online, this became a copycat situation,” one Garden State police chief theorized.
The US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center is located at the Picatinny Arsenal and is one of the sites where several mystery drone sightings have been reported, which has prompted concern.
As a highly secure facility that develops and tests new bombs, guns, ammunition and warfare devices for all branches of the military, it is a target for espionage by foreign adversaries.
When The Post arrived at the crash site Thursday night, the resident was putting his trash cans out and declined to comment.
However, as paranoia grips the state, the report of one crashing into a homeowner’s backyard had the mayor rushing to the scene.
The mayor of Pequannock, Ryan Herd, pulled up in a Ford Econoline work van to survey the crash scene for himself.
Herd told The Post “it is definitely not” one of the massive, car-size drones that purportedly have been hovering overhead.
He said he’s “absolutely” concerned that “nobody knows whose drones are flying over us and what they’re flying over us for and where they’re taking off and landing.”
“Drones are flying over our houses, which is our private property. My family is here,” he added.
The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, there was a second report of a downed drone that hit a powerline in nearby Randolph Township less than an hour later.
The report turned out to be unfounded, the Morris County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.
In a follow-up phone call Friday morning, Herd urged residents not to chase after, shoot at or attempt to catch any of the large drones.
“We can’t be putting up Class 1 and Class 2 drones trying to follow these drones. God forbid something happens and it crashes into the big drone, and the big drone crashes into a house and kills six people — that’s going to be a problem,” he said.
Local officials have told The Post that many sightings farther afield could be either civilian copycats flying their own drones or people mistaking planes, helicopters or satellites for UFOs.
After receiving reports of drone activity last month near Morris County, New Jersey, the Federal Aviation Administration issued temporary bans on drone flights over a golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey — owned by President-elect Donald Trump — and over Picatinny Arsenal Military Base.
The FAA says the bans were in response to requests from “federal security partners.”
