Eyes (Pies?) In The Sky
From the skies over Bhagdad to the air above Bel Air…is Belmont next?
We live in a world where it seems like just about anybody can reach into their pocket and haul out a gadget that seems ripped right off the screen of a science fiction movie. The Teller just wishes that when these geeks pick some movie’s future-tech to rip off, they wouldn’t keep picking that mediocre Tom Cruise “thriller” Minority Report.
Take airborne drones, for instance. They made several appearances in that film, and they’ve been hunting the skies of Central Asia for terrorists for about a decade now (or more?).
Now, it seems they’re terrorizing the skies of Los Angeles on behalf of… real estate agents?
The LAPD has put the good real estate professionals of the city of angels on notice that Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibit the use of unmanned aircraft in U.S. airspace – with the exception of some remote controlled model airplanes, which is a geek technology The Teller actually believes in. Our parents’ basement is filled with model planes.
The idea behind the LAPD’s admonishment is to get local real estate agents to quit using robotic spy cams in the sky to film overhead shots of all those pool-bedecked, cliff-side mansions and palatial Spanish villas that seem to litter the California coast – lest the sky get so clogged with machines that police helicopters can barely hunt for escaping drug dealers or runaway ex-football stars.
While these drone wars may a particularly hard fought battle in L.A. – a city so addicted to blue-yonder thrills that the local news reliably features a police helicopter/car chase per week – The Teller’s a bit worried the trend may spread.
They say the camera adds 10 pounds to the human body – imagine what it could do the square footage of the latest Milton McMansion or Wellesley chateau? Yikes.
Prices around here are high enough (there’s a reason we still live in our parents basement, beyond the free laundry and mom’s meatloaf, of course. OK fine, no there isn’t.). We don’t need them bloated after local agents, eager to boost their bottom line, inflate asking prices to match artifically fat airborne photos.
Eyes in the sky are on the lookout for huge homes. And The Teller is worried.
