Death from Above: Popular Christmas gift drones “terrorizing” Oregon’s once only nominally creepy nude beaches!

"It's something that's becoming a concern..."

But what did you get for Christmas? A fine pair of socks? Merino wool sweater? A lovingly refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 7? Maybe a drone? Oh, you are not alone if you received a drone. The once-prohibitively expensive modern miracles have dropped in price so precipitously that they feature under Christmas trees and Hanukkah menorahs of all economic classes, from the lower-middle all the way to the straight upper.

And have you flown your gift yet? Sent it soaring over local park or beach?

In my one-time home state of Oregon a record number of drones are careening through the sky, especially over nude beaches and let’s go straight to Eugene’s Register-Guard for the latest troubling developments:

On a warm afternoon last July 21, a drone was spotted flying across the southern end of Smith Rock State Park.

It was a weekend, and the park’s honeycombed cliffs were dotted with rock climbers while hikers spread across the miles of trails below.

Suddenly, something went wrong.

As the drone buzzed toward Asterisk Pass and Llama Wall, it smashed into a cliff just above a team of rock climbers. The drone fell, nearly hitting the climbers, before breaking into pieces on the ground, according to a report obtained through a public records request.

Nobody was hurt, and the drone owners never found, but the incident highlighted a growing issue at Oregon’s state parks.

“It’s something that is becoming a concern, not in the majority of parks, but really at the most scenic ones — places like Smith Rock, Silver Falls and on the Oregon Coast,” said Katie Gauthier, a policy coordinator at the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

That has led to conflict.

Rock climbers have threatened lawsuits over concerns drones will cause an accident. Hikers have complained about a lack of peace and quiet. Even one of Oregon’s nude beaches has seen a drone show up — carrying a camera.

Now, I sort of worry about the safety of the rock climbers and the privacy of the nude beachers but mostly worry about the rest of us for, again, I once lived on Oregon’s coast and cannot tell you how little the sun shines. How it hides for weeks and months at a time. And if this footage of Oregonians “sun”bathing nude was ever released, I fear it would cause much blindness and unspeakable damage.

It is ok for nude Oregonians to see each other as their eyes are accustomed to the glare but Australians and Californians, Brazilians and French would be forever harmed. Forever and ever.

More as the story develops.