Woman terrified by drone outside her window

SEATTLE, Wash. — A high-tech Peeping Tom terrified a Seattle woman getting dressed in her apartment.

Lisa Pleiss spotted the drone just before 8 a.m. Sunday and reported it to her concierge, who called Seattle police.

“It was freaky,” she said. “You don't expect to be walking around indecent in your apartment and have this thing out there potentially recording you.”

When Pleiss grabbed her camera to a take a picture, she said the drone seemed to react.

“It, like, swooped out of frame immediately, really quickly,” she said, “which made me think they were looking at me because they were reacting to my actions.”

Pleiss lives on the 26^th floor of her building, which is in downtown Seattle at the corner of Terry Avenue and Stewart Street.  She she's never had to worry about someone looking through window before. She called down to her concierge, who spotted two men operating the drone.

“One had this big tripod with big equipment on it and it had something else that went with it,” Pleiss said. “They immediately grabbed it and kind of ran across the street.”

The men took off in a white Mazda, though there was no license plate on the front of the car.

Police emphasize that owning and flying drones is legal, though they will respond to complaints.

"If you feel threatened by it or you get hit by it, free to tell a person, ‘Hey look, that's not cool,’ or you can call police and we can do the talking for you if you wish,” Officer Patrick Michaud said.

But when it comes to a drone potentially taking photos or video, KIRO 7 found out it could be a different story. One of our attorneys said there could be legal issues with drones recording people in private places.

Pleiss has posted her photo online to see if anyone knows why the drone was outside her window.

“I do know that there's a lot of buzz and concern around drones and I now understand why,” she said.

Police are investigating whether any surveillance cameras in the area captured the incident. If they did, KIRO 7 will ask for the video to post online.

KIRO