Police have recovered a large drone believed to have been abandoned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Photos obtained by the Post show New York City police officers lifting the unwieldy aircraft, which appears to be more than 5 feet in diameter.
Officials said police responded to an email alert alerting them to the presence of a drone on the Fifth Avenue sidewalk between Market Street and Morris Avenue.
As police investigated, a passerby said he worked in the building that houses the headquarters of a drone manufacturing company. The company was identified as Amogy, a sustainable energy startup working on the use of ammonia as a renewable fuel source, including for aviation. vehicle.
Amogy CEO Sung-hoon Woo later acknowledged that the drone belonged to his company and said it had been placed on the sidewalk after a company party about a month ago, the people said.
Officials said Wu’s drone was inoperable and remained there for more than a month before police recovered it.
The NYPD dispatched an Emergency Services Unit truck to disconnect the drone’s nitrogen component and ensure it was safe for transport before taking it to the 88th Precinct for storage.
An Amogyi spokesperson told the Post in an email that the drone was used to demonstrate the company’s clean energy technology three years ago and had been on display outside its headquarters ever since.
“The NYPD briefly occupied the property. Amoji cooperated fully with the NYPD and the drone was returned to the company after the NYPD determined the drone did not pose a threat,” the spokesperson said.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Rebecca Weiner told reporters at an unrelated briefing that the number of sightings has skyrocketed over the past month, even as drone mania has taken hold in New York and New Jersey. said that it may be due to the power of suggestion.
“What we’ve seen here in the city over the last few days is, frankly, completely normal in terms of actual drone activity that we see every day,” she said, adding that He pointed out that approximately 2,000 drone flights are conducted per week within the country. big apple
“We’re seeing a very large increase in reporting, but not much of an increase in actual drone detections, which is no surprise. All people are seeing on the news are drone sightings everywhere. ”
He said the department had a similar conversation last week after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed, where threats against corporate CEOs suddenly became ubiquitous. , there is one important difference.
“There, we’re not just seeing an increase in the number of reports, we’re actually seeing an actual increase in threats,” she said.
