Seattle couple says drone with video camera crashes into their dining room window, breaks glass

SEATTLE -- A couple on Capitol Hill  called police early Thursday to report that a small drone carrying a video camera had crashed into their dining room window and had broken the glass, the Seattle Police Department said.

The couple, whose home is near 13th Avenue East and East Aloha Street, told police they heard the sound of breaking glass at about 7:30 a.m. and went outside, where they found a white drone lying on the ground outside their dining room window.

"The couple noticed the drone had a camera affixed to it, which was still recording. While no one was injured in the incident, the drone smashed the couple’s dining room window and caused damage to the window’s frame," the Seattle Police Department said in a report on its online crime blotter.

Officers documented the damage, booked the drone into evidence, and are working to get a warrant to review footage recorded by the drone’s camera and identify its pilot, the department said.

Last year, SPD detectives used recovered footage to identify the pilot of a drone after it crashed into the Seattle Great Wheel on the waterfront. No on was injured in that case. The case has been forwarded to the Federal Aviation Administration for further review, SPD said.

The City Attorney’s Office charged a 37-year-old Oak Harbor man with reckless endangerment after a drone he was flying crashed into a woman at the Seattle Pride parade in June 2015, the SPD noted.