Drone Gets Too Close to Obama Motorcade

The Secret Service stepped in
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2015 12:31 PM CST

A drone nearly crashing into a champion skier is one thing; one coming perilously close to President Obama's motorcade—definitely not cool. That's what the Secret Service is miffed about after an incident in Hawaii Monday, in which a drone cruised next to the convoy—CNN says the drone was briefly "hovering car high"—as the commander in chief was being taken to his vacation home after a golf outing, USA Today reports. "The subject was completely unaware that the Presidential motorcade would be transiting the area of operation and immediately complied with law enforcement requests to cease and desist," reads a Secret Service statement.

The drone operator—described by Mediaite as "Hawaii's Matthew McConaughey," a harmless-looking dude in a "Laid Back, Easy Goin'" muscle shirt—wasn't charged and the president was whisked to his Oahu getaway home, where he's vacationing with Michelle and their two daughters, without further incident, NBC News reports. (If you received a drone over the holidays, you might have to register it.)

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