‘Police’ drone warns residents to evacuate. Don’t do it, Utah cops say

When a drone flew overhead telling them to evacuate, residents of a Utah town thought it was an official order from police.

Just one hitch, Kaysville officers say.

The department doesn’t own a drone, police wrote in a Facebook post Monday. And officers wouldn’t issue official evacuation orders through one even if they did, police added.

The counterfeit drone buzzed people near Davis Applied Technology College in Kaysville, a city of 27,000 between Ogden and Salt Lake City, with the fake evacuation order last week, officers wrote.

They ask anyone who encounters the bogus drone to contact police.

Kaysville firefighters poked some fun at the incident in a Facebook post of their own, lamenting the fire department’s “not-so-droney” budget.

“The only flying announcements we can afford to make are throwing frisbees from a moving fire engine at your forehead with a note taped to it advising to leave the area,” firefighters wrote.

Firefighters also suggested drone-relayed evacuation notices might not be very efficient in Kaysville given problems getting motorists to obey road-closure signs.

“While D R O N E and D O N U T both start with a ‘D,’ they are not the same and the police (and myself) would rather spend time with handheld cake than with remote-controlled-flying-karaoke,” firefighters added.

This story was originally published September 9, 2019 at 10:22 AM with the headline "‘Police’ drone warns residents to evacuate. Don’t do it, Utah cops say."