Watch a Drone Get Knocked Down by Toilet Paper Roll at a Soccer Match
A fan KO’ed a spectator-recording drone at a soccer match in Argentina by throwing a roll of toilet paper into its rotors.
The last time we reported on the intersection between soccer and unmanned aerial vehicles, the incident consisted of an impressive hoverboard being commandeered by a pilot at a final match in Lisbon, Portugal. This time, there’s no hoverboard, but it’s still fairly impressive. On Sunday, a fan downed a drone by throwing a roll of toilet paper at the UAV at a soccer match between the Gimnasia de Mendoza and Mitre teams in Argentina.
The UAV, which seems to be hovering above the crowd in order to record photographs and video, couldn’t handle getting its rotors entangled in the ultra-soft toilet paper fibers, causing it to go spinning out of control and crashing onto the ground.
According to The Mirror, the drone was in the midst of filming a tracking shot of the crowd while the two teams were duking it out to secure their spot in Argentina’s third-tier National B playoff. Fortunately, CNET reports that nobody was injured in the incident, which the following video footage confirms.
The more impressive part of this story is the accuracy of the throw, if we’re being honest. Take a look at the precision with which the perpetrator launched his projectile at the UAV. We didn’t put toilet paper on our list of effective anti-drone guns, but perhaps we should have. Check out the footage below, courtesy of PhuKenh via CNET.
How about that trajectory?
Obviously, it’s extremely disrespectful and inappropriate to mess with another man’s drone, especially at a public event where thousands of others could be enjoying the UAV’s presence. On the other hand, soccer fans get pretty rowdy, so things like this should be considered somewhat inevitable. According to The Sun, throwing toilet paper rolls at soccer games is a common occurrence, so authorities shouldn’t have been too surprised.
Either way, the home team didn’t benefit from the vigor displayed by this toilet paper-throwing fan, as Gimnasia lost to Mitra by 4-3.
