NJ - Mystery drones seen nightly

Interesting! My mom co-owns a large swath of farmland that she and her siblings inherited from my grandfather. The land is located in that area of red in SC (aka Marion County) that’s right under the red line along the NC border. They receive offers from people or companies wanting to the buy the land all the time. And by all the time I’m talking monthly. Every single month she’s contacted by someone with a new offer. They’ve even asked us to name our price, but that land has a lot of sentimental value to my family.

We don’t know why anyone would even want the land, TBH. It’s in a rural area with few businesses nearby, and it hasn’t been used to grow tobacco for almost thirty years. We’ve been super suspicious about these offers from the very beginning, and now I’m even more suspicious!
 
AZ drone - This video was taken last night 20 miles north of downtown Prescott, Arizona.
 
If these drones are legit then why don't the owners call law enforcement and admit that they are the reason that people are concerned about their drones? It looks like these drones cost a small fortune and I'm sure the owners do not want their drones shot down. I'm telling you that someone is going to get tired of this whole show and shoot one or two down eventually. JMO
I sure hope no one will try to shoot one down. Hearing that they are the size of a small car I worry who would be impacted if one hits the ground....
 
Interesting! My mom co-owns a large swath of farmland that she and her siblings inherited from my grandfather. The land is located in that area of red in SC (aka Marion County) that’s right under the red line along the NC border. They receive offers from people or companies wanting to the buy the land all the time. And by all the time I’m talking monthly. Every single month she’s contacted by someone with a new offer. They’ve even asked us to name our price, but that land has a lot of sentimental value to my family.

We don’t know why anyone would even want the land, TBH. It’s in a rural area with few businesses nearby, and it hasn’t been used to grow tobacco for almost thirty years. We’ve been super suspicious about these offers from the very beginning, and now I’m even more suspicious!
I'm pretty sure this area is owned by Smithfield Foods, which is owned by a Chinese company. They probably just want the land to raise more hogs for their pork products, like bacon, hams, etc.
 
I'm pretty sure this area is owned by Smithfield Foods, which is owned by a Chinese company. They probably just want the land to raise more hogs for their pork products, like bacon, hams, etc.
As far as I can tell, Smithfield Foods doesn’t currently own any land in South Carolina, and I don’t know of any hog farms in Marion County.

As for the drones, I’m stumped. At first I thought people were just noticing more of them because they were mentioned in the news. Then I figured the problem was probably compounded by other drone operators flying their own drones to check out the situation (but only making the situation worse). I still kinda think that’s what happened, but I’m not as confident in that theory as time goes on.
 
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As far as I can tell, Smithfield Foods doesn’t currently own any land in South Carolina, and I don’t know of any hog farms in Marion County.

As for the drones, I’m stumped. At first I thought people were just noticing more of them because they were mentioned in the news. Then I figured the problem was probably compounded by other drone operators flying their own drones to check out the situation (but only making the situation worse). I still kinda think that’s what happened, but I’m not as confident in that theory as time goes on.

I don't think it's Smithfield...here's a link where you can search by US county as to where China owns farmland. Nothing in Marion county but a few acres bought in the 1970's.
 
The FAA has published another 30 temporary drone flight restrictions over critical infrastructure in New York. The move effectively bans recreational (but not commercial) drones from flying within one nautical mile of New York City and Long Island electrical power stations.

I wonder why NYC has to single out specific locations, considering unauthorized drone flight is banned everywhere within city limits. Many of the other areas are on approach paths to airports.

My guess is it’s a reminder to people that flying drones is these areas is really, REALLY off limits now, and that doing so is not just a city or state issue but a federal offense.
 
I’m here for a wild speculation.. but could it be possible that right now they’re gathering coordinates so that later they could be loaded with explosives and then sent back to those coordinates? All at once?

Half of me is worried the other half thinks we’re going to find a forum of hobbyists that have all agreed to launch during the same days or times.
 
I did try to read the whole thread, and didn't see this mentioned yet: at about the time the other drone sightings began, two Chinese nationals were arrested for flying a modified (to be able to enter restricted airspace, and exceed the altitude limit) drone over Vandenburg space force base for an hour.

Brentwood, BTW, is a long drive from Vandenburg base, about 5 hours each way.

Here's a more in-depth report of the Vandenburg incident, from the L.A. times, which gives a few details of the arrest and conversation.

My personal wild guess on the NJ drones issue; they are 99% misidentifications (manned aircraft) hobbiests, etc. It's the other 1% I'm worried about. A hostile nation planning a surprise drone attack would have strong motive to test US responses to drones, to see if an attack by that method is viable.
 

Huh? There is no farmland near Camp Bullis.
There is lots of shopping and homes and downtown San Antonio.
There is also private property north of Camp Bullis. However, it is not "farmable". (Solid rock)
Lots of shopping and high-end gated communities. It's desirable real estate.
This doesn't make sense.

There is tons of retail in the area and of course, some property owners could be Chinese, but they could be from anywhere. There is lots of investment in that part of town. Malls, shopping centers, traffic jams etc, upscale housing etc etc.

Lots of people own drones over near Camp Bullis because they have money. It's nice landscape over there and I can see someone flying a drone over Camp Bullis if they are filming landscape etc. Camp Bullis is undeveloped and scenic. It's over an environmentally protected area. There isn't much to see defense-wise however. It's a wilderness type reservist obstacle course training area. They would have to spend tons of drone time spying over the area to obtain any relevant info.

MOO: Drones intruding into Camp Bullis is probably a hobbyist photographing hill country scenery.

ETA: I can't find anything in a google search about drones over Camp Bullis. Nada Zip.
However, there were some drones near Randolph AFB. However, there is tons of road construction near Randolph and Texans hate road construction, but love to film it. (It's the I35 San Antonio-Austin corridor) There is also lots of road construction near Camp Bullis. (1604-I10 expansion) The road construction is never ending and the bunt of headaches, memes and jokes.
 
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(shortened by me for focus)

Thank you for answering my question. So, ~33,000 ft. That makes me wonder if the pilots that thought the lights rose to ~50,000 ft were off by ~17,000 ft. I supposed it's possible... but 17,000 ft isn't exactly a few hundred yards. It's also ~ 1/3 of what they thought, which is a fairly large amount. Hmmmm....
Sorry if I missed something that specified, but maybe those pilots had been at their own airplane’s altitude (35,000 and 42,000 (ish?)) when they made these reports? ie: they were seeing the lights that much higher than where they were. Either way, whewwww, that is so high!
 

Huh? There is no farmland near Camp Bullis.
There is lots of shopping and homes and downtown San Antonio.
There is also private property north of Camp Bullis. However, it is not "farmable". (Solid rock)
Lots of shopping and high-end gated communities. It's desirable real estate.
This doesn't make sense.

There is tons of retail in the area and of course, some property owners could be Chinese, but they could be from anywhere. There is lots of investment in that part of town. Malls, shopping centers, traffic jams etc, upscale housing etc etc.

Lots of people own drones over near Camp Bullis because they have money. It's nice landscape over there and I can see someone flying a drone over Camp Bullis if they are filming landscape etc. Camp Bullis is undeveloped and scenic. It's over an environmentally protected area. There isn't much to see defense-wise however. It's a wilderness type reservist obstacle course training area. They would have to spend tons of drone time spying over the area to obtain any relevant info.

MOO: Drones intruding into Camp Bullis is probably a hobbyist photographing hill country scenery.

ETA: I can't find anything in a google search about drones over Camp Bullis. Nada Zip.
However, there were some drones near Randolph AFB. However, there is tons of road construction near Randolph and Texans hate road construction, but love to film it. (It's the I35 San Antonio-Austin corridor) There is also lots of road construction near Camp Bullis. (1604-I10 expansion) The road construction is never ending and the bunt of headaches, memes and jokes.
The map (and the article) is ludicrous, for one thing. Chinese own 384,000 acres of US farmland, which is only 600 mi² - smaller than Oklahoma City. Half of that is owned by American companies with Chinese subsidiaries. The Chinese own less than 1% of foreign-owned US farmland, which is only about 3% of all privately-held farmland. If the government actually thought the farmland was a threat, they would've done something about it (not saying their actions would've been rational, but in their eyes, doing something stupid is preferable to doing nothing). Same with the drones... Shooting one down or getting an extreme close-up photo is well within their capabilities. It's also a bit hypocritical for the US government to be concerned about foreign spies, considering what the CIA does on a daily basis (they're not buying farmland).
 
The map (and the article) is ludicrous, for one thing. Chinese own 384,000 acres of US farmland, which is only 600 mi² - smaller than Oklahoma City. Half of that is owned by American companies with Chinese subsidiaries. The Chinese own less than 1% of foreign-owned US farmland, which is only about 3% of all privately-held farmland. If the government actually thought the farmland was a threat, they would've done something about it (not saying their actions would've been rational, but in their eyes, doing something stupid is preferable to doing nothing). Same with the drones... Shooting one down or getting an extreme close-up photo is well within their capabilities. It's also a bit hypocritical for the US government to be concerned about foreign spies, considering what the CIA does on a daily basis (they're not buying farmland).
Yep and back to Camp Bullis: It's about 1/2 mile from Six Flags. Once again, drone flyovers of rides are popular. News crews also are deploying drones as traffic cameras. And I'm sure drones were used over Camp Bullis to search for Andreen McDonald. She and her husband lived just off the base and he had access to it since he was military. Hundreds search Camp Bullis for signs of Andreen McDonald, family speaks
 
It's been somewhat silent for a few days about the drones and people gathering footage.
Wonder what's going on ?

Yep and back to Camp Bullis: It's about 1/2 mile from Six Flags. Once again, drone flyovers of rides are popular. News crews also are deploying drones as traffic cameras. And I'm sure drones were used over Camp Bullis to search for Andreen McDonald. She and her husband lived just off the base and he had access to it since he was military. Hundreds search Camp Bullis for signs of Andreen McDonald, family speaks
I'm not saying there aren't some drones, there almost certainly are. To the extent that there are, they either belong to the Feds (most likely scenario), or they're innocuous. NJ police data has shown that most of the "drone" reports have followed commercial flight patterns. When my wife pointed one out a couple weeks ago, it was a jet.
 

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