On January 2015, a Washington, DC, hobbiest accidentally flew his DJI Phantom quadcopter drone over the White House fence and crashed it on the lawn.
Two years earlier, a prankster sent his drone toward German prime minister Angela Merkel during a campaign rally.
Small drones have also proven to be effective tools of mischief that doesn’t make the national news, from spying to smuggling to hacking. So when Mo Rastgaar was watching World Cup soccer and heard about snipers protecting the crowd, he doubted that they’d fully understood a drone’s potential.