I'm sitting here at the beach alone because Karl just got taken away by a police officer.
That's right. He was flying his drone to get some beautiful shots for his video.
Then this quite angry looking police officer came upto him and like "sir, what are you doing?"
"I want you to come to the police station".
So he had to go with the police officer.
While Karl was flying the drone, there were some guys standing around here, some of them lifeguards.
And I think they might have had something to do with it. Not entirely sure but felt like it.
I just hope that he gets off with a warning and not too much of a fine but...
Let's see.
There he is again. It's one hour or two hours later.
Yeah, let's find out what he has to say.
Dude, you are a free man again.
Karl: That was such a waste of time man! Honestly.
Okay so I was flying my drone here on Neil Island on a beach.
I just needed to get some beautiful shots of this beautiful place for my videos for you guys and..
a policeman suddenly comes up to me and this was after I finished flying. I put the drone away in my bag.
It was all done. The police comes up to me
and he's like "what are you doing?"
I'm like.. didn't say anything, right?
Didn't tell them I was flying a drone because
the first thing with dealing with police, especially for such a small issue like flying a drone on a beach to get some beauty shots
is you don't admit to what you've done, right?
Because then you're guilty straight away.
They have to go and do the work to prove you are guilty.
And flying a drone on a beach is not that big an issue.
Have they heard of like Google Maps, the satellite imagery?
Have they heard that every major government has a drone over top right now and they can get shot so..
It's really not a security issue flying a drone here.
Anyway, what happened was there was a group of guys standing on the beach over here.
And they wanted to have some fun with a foreigner so they decided to call the police
to tell them my location. So the policeman was coming exactly for me where I was on the beach here.
And they just wanted to watch, you know, a foreigner get taken away to the police station and get told off, basically.
Because after I was finished flying the drone, they still stood there in a circle staring at me.
They knew the police was coming, right?
So yeah, I got set up by them.
They could have just came and told me "you can't fly drones here" and I wouldn't have flown it, right? But..
Yeah, anyway. So the cop comes.
The cop's like "are you flying a drone?". I'm like.. I didn't say anything. I'm not gonna admit that I was flying a drone.
You don't admit you're flying it because it means you are guilty straightaway.
They have to have a witness and do their work to prove you're guilty.
They're police. That's like dealing with police 101,
especially for such a small issue like flying a drone on a beach when I didn't even know it was illegal.
And so we are walking off. I go with them a little bit. I'm a little bit worried.
I'm like "oh god. Am I gonna get a massive fine or something now? What's gonna happen to me?"
He just says "Come with me. Come with me." Couldn't speak much English.
And so we go up to the car park and he commandeers a local taxi to take me to the police station which is like 500 m away..
He just tells the taxi driver in Hindi like "take us to the police station".
So they didn't have a car for them.
And I get in the back of the taxi and the tourist gear is all sitting there..
like their bag, their lipstick on the seat, their sunglasses..
so I just move all that stuff to the side and the taxi driver takes us and drops us at the police station.
That's what it's like here. Police can commandeer vehicles and tea, food at those stalls here.
And that's just how it is. So we got into the police station and
we go in, I sit down and I hear them speaking in Hindi.
I didn't tell them I knew Hindi or anything at that time.
And he's asking for the police officer who can speak most English.
And that first cop... he was okay.
His job was to bring me to the police station and it was someone else's job to interrogate me.
And that's when the bad cop came along..the guy who could speak English.
And oh my god! Was he angry at me or what for flying a drone.
It was unbelievable. I couldn't believe it. I was getting yelled at in the police station by this cop and..
his eyes were like going bloodshot red and his face was going red.
And he was just like yelling at me.
Just stuff like "you know you can't fly here. You know you can't fly here.
It's in the instruction manual of your drone. You know you can't fly here.
Flying a drone is really hard. It's not an easy thing so you know the rules".
And it's a new drone. I just got it like maybe a month ago.
And drones are really easy to fly and it doesn't come with a rule-book saying
number one: you cannot fly at Neil Island.
Usually, the app tells you that you can't take off from there.
But it didn't tell me I couldn't take off here.
So I went ahead with takeoff and someone reported me.
So anyway, he was yelling at me for like five to ten minutes and
there was nothing I could say to him to calm him down.
And I was trying to explain to him "no I didn't know you can't fly it here and I know that's not an excuse but...
I just didn't know. I'm really sorry and
It was wasn't flying with him. He just wasn't happy. He was just keeping repeating it.
He wanted me to admit that I was flying the drone and that I knew what the rules were.
And so as soon as you admit something, as soon as you tell them "yeah, I know what the rules were..."
I guess it's easier to go straight to a fine because I have that admission of guilt from you but
I was just being honest with them. I didn't know and...
I wanted to calm him down somehow.
But I wasn't gonna tell him what he wanted to hear from me, that I knew the rules.
And then in the background, there was like a good cop.
There was like five or so cops watching me at this point.
There was a good cop and he's like saying "just let him go man. It's a tiny drone. It's only like a 100 grams".
And yeah, it is a small drone. It weighs 300 grams.
And so I knew because he was saying to the other guy that it was probably gonna be okay and I was gonna get my drone back.
And then the bad cop is like "I'm gonna confiscate your drone".
I'm like "oh god. Please don't do this. It's new. I'm so sorry. Bla bla bla..."
But I knew they weren't gonna take it right? Because I heard the guy saying in Hindi..
"Give it back to him. It's okay. Let it be. He wasn't doing anything".
And then the guy wants to see the drone footage. So I showed him the drone footage
and he's just watching it. It's a really boring drone footage because I'm a beginner flyer so..
it really sucks.. that two minute footage that I got.
There was nothing. It was just some shots of the beach and some of the palm trees, that's it.
And the thing is he didn't wanna delete it.
He didn't ask me to delete it when they finally gave me the drone back which is.. it's really weird.
Why would you come and take me to the police station,
threaten to confiscate the drone off me and not take the footage off the drone as well?
Like, do you actually care about that footage?
Like, why you stopping people from flying drones,
especially when Google Maps has a satellite image at this place and
every other government in the world has actual drones above the air here
that can spy on exactly whatever's happening in the military areas of this island and the police areas of this island.
And then that is I guess why this island is off limits for drone fliers because
it is like a sensitive military area here.
It's kind of the gateway to India. You come to these islands and you cut across and you're in India.
So in the end, I had to write a letter of apology to get my back.
So I write "I'm very sorry for using my drone on the beach and
I will never ever do it again. Sorry. From Karl Rock".
And that was it. That's all I had to do and I got my drone back and...
I left and walked back to the beach here.
You know, I was a bit worried the whole time because I was like "oh man, am I gonna get a fine? Am I...
gonna get in big trouble for this?"
If it is a military area, I shouldn't be flying the drone especially, right?
I didn't know. So...
yeah. I learnt a lesson. And the lesson is
if you are a foreigner, you cannot fly a drone in India at all.
You are just not allowed.
Indians can and you have to get a special app and apply for the permission. It's very easy.
So yeah, if you wanna fly a drone here and get some shots in India,
you have to have an Indian apply for that special permission and fly the drone for you as well.
So that's how you can operate a drone here in India as a foreigner.
I'm glad that's over man.
Morijn: Yeah man. Whoa. Karl: That sucked.
I was a little bit worried man. When he took me away, I was like.. I don't know what's gonna happen.
Morijn: Yeah I was like okay. It's probably not gonna take too long.
I was just hoping you wouldn't get any fine or.. at least not too much.
Karl: Yeah. As soon as I.. I forgot the time.
As soon as I started walking off the cop, I just got on the phone to
Manisha and Gaurav and I'm like "what do I do? What's your advice here? Morijn: Yeah, right.
Morijn: Yeah, don't admit and...
Yeah, they kind of just ...
They're just like "you're gonna be okay. Don't worry. It's such a small thing."
You're going a bit overboard taking to the police station
Morijn: And all that over a small drone like..
filming something that's just beautiful nature, right?
It makes no sense like...
Karl: It's like they think.. they assume if you got a drone, you're probably a spy or something.. basically.
Morijn: Spying on the water, spying on the fishes.
Morijn: You've gotta vlog against this man.
Karl: Gotta protect the fish. Morijn: Yeah yeah.
And it's not the first time I've been stopped by the police even.
The first time was when I was riding on the Mumbai-Pune expressway on my motorbike.
I didn't know motorbikes weren't allowed there. So I just zipped down from the car lane and
rode straight off and
rode like a quarter of the way down the expressway before the police actually pulled me aside.
Go check that out.