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Cops warn mystery swarms of up to 30 drones are spreading across states and tell residents NOT to shoot them down
Daily Mail
December 29, 2019
Area: Denver
Residents in six counties across two states are now being left baffled by large drones that are being spotted flying across the sky each night.
On Monday, law enforcement officials in the Colorado counties of Phillips and Yuma reported that they had clocked a total of 17 drones travelling in their airspace since December 16.
Now, sightings have spread to three other counties in Colorado, and a neighboring county in southwest Nebraska.
Washington County Sheriff Jon Stivers told KDVR on Saturday that locals in his jurisdiction have been spotting the flying objects between the hours of 6 and 10 pm.
'I've had reports of anywhere from 6 to 12 [drones],' he stated.
'One person believed it to be more than 12, close to 30. It seemed like several of them were flying together, in 3 or 4 pairs'.
The drones have estimated wingspans of at least six-feet.
Stivers later told The Denver Post that he had been warning local residents not to shoot the drones out of the sky, telling them that to do so would be a violation of federal law.
However, there are fears that the flying objects could collide with planes or helicopters that are also traveling through the skies.
And that worry is increasing as there have now been additional sightings in Sedgwick and Lincoln counties in Colorado, as well as Deuel County in Nebraska.
The drones reportedly hover between 200 feet and 300 feet off the ground.
Both the size and the number of drones would appear to rule out hobbyists, Undersheriff William Myers told the Denver Post.
Sheriffs are investigating all reports and will conduct a forensic evaluation to determine who owns the drones if they are able to do so.
The Federal Aviation Administration has no information on the drones, according to the Denver Post said.
The Drug Enforcement Agency and the Air Force also told the newspaper that the drones do not belong to their agencies.
Conspiracy theories are exploding online, with some positing that the drones belong to a Mexican drug cartel or to aliens from a far off planet
And even if the owner or owners of the drones are eventually tracked down, they may not face any criminal charges.
'The way Colorado law is written, none of the statutes fit for harassment or trespassing,' Myers told the Denver Post.
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