TheTourist
 lvl.1
United States
Offline
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Greetings DJI pilots - it's story time!
TLDR; If you lost a drone in Chcago I would like to get it back to you. I know what you look like and where you launched from. A serial number and some location specifics will have your little buddy on it's way home to you ASAP.
While walking through Chicago this weekend, my family and I happened upon a downed DJI Spark in a fairly major tourist area.
It was cold and we were on our way to an event, so I wasn't able to hang around to see if the owner was bushwhacking the park at the same time. I'm a video producer and editor by trade, and knew the monetary and emotional value of the little Spark, so we carried it around Chicago for the day until I could figure out how to get it back to it's rightful home.
I hope no one thinks I was being sneaky by taking it home with me. I'd rather try (and possibly fail) to find the owner myself than have it sitting in a Lost & Found pile in a restaraunt (until someone decides to "borrow" it), or in a police locker never to be seen again (or "borrowed). Neither of those options would actively seek out the owner - at least this has some chance of succeeding.
Back at the hotel, I downloaded the footage. It was from the same day - roughly 3 hours before I found the Spark. Amazingly, using the two shots on the card, I was able to identify the pilot and his exact launch location! Unfortunately, that location was in a popular tourist restaurant, so the chances of finding them at the location many hours later was slim. And if I may say so, the location was probably not the wisest to be flying a drone. There was no margin for error in a busy area like that. I have the drone to prove it.
The final clips show a fairly controlled pull back from the launch site, followed by what looks like a bit of a struggle for control and a long sideways bank, heading North along Michigan Avenue - then a final struggle, spin and loss of video. The loss of control/video point is about 1km NW from where I found it.
I've taken a deeper look at the SD card and found an additional 70 or so video files that have been formatted over, but may be salvageable and help me locate the owner, but I'm crazy-busy at the moment, and thought I'd try here before committing the time to dig through all of that.
Once I located the launch site, I called the restaurant's Lost and Found department and left my contact information.
Back home today, I called the Chicago Police Department to report what I'd found; in case the owner filed a police report. They were stunningly unhelpful, but I imagine they've got bigger issues at hand. I also wonder if the owner bothered to report it - I certainly wouldn't want to describe my flight plan over a crowded metropolitan area to a cop in the USA's third largest city!
Finally I've posted here in hopes someone is scouring the net for this very post. Please let me know if there are any other sites that would be good places to post.
Future plans: I plan to contact DJI to see if I can get any information from them. Reading the forums tells me "probably not", which is frustrating because I KNOW they've got the info to connect me with the owner.
I've downloaded DJI Assistant 2 in hopes of accessing flight logs etc, but I can't seem to get anything to export - any tips are welcome. I'm purposely trying to stay away from interacting with DJI or the drone's account via the apps for fear of it looking like I'm sneakily trying to register someone else's drone. Again, etiquette tips welcome.
Thanks for reading this far. Feel free to PM any leads.
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Second Officer
DJI team
lvl.4
Captain
