brownknows

[link=http://www.wcnc.com/news/countybycounty-rowan/stories/wcnc-042104-al-blimp_shot.14a2a391a.html]Competition between card dealers gets out of hand[/link]

SDR-Hammer

Sound like an interesting story. Can you copy and paste it here so we don’t need to register with that site?

brownknows

Man shoots down blimp with shotgun
06:02 PM EDT on Wednesday, April 21, 2004

By WILL JONES / 6NEWS

SALISBURY, N.C. -- Competition between two car dealerships may have gone too far after a man fired a shotgun hitting an advertisement blimp for one Salisbury dealership.

Car sales is a competitive industry and dealers like Cloninger Ford Toyota in Salisbury will go that extra mile to attract customers, like hiring an advertising blimp from Carolina Airships. The blimp was flying for nearly five hours before its flight ended abruptly.

According to a police report, Tim Wyatt was flying the blimp in a field next to Team Chevrolet, but it was leased by Cloninger.

Police said a man got out of a black truck next to the car wash at Team Chevrolet. Wyatt said a man pulled out a shotgun and took several shots at the blimp. Police do not know who was driving the truck, but they do know who owns it.

"The truck was bearing a North Carolina dealer registration plate that is registered to Team Chevrolet," said Mark Wilhelm, Salisbury Police Chief.

Joshua Castro works at the Sagebrush Steakhouse located in between the dealerships. Police told him about the shootings just after it happened.

"It sounds like either a childish game, or they were getting back at Toyota Cloninger for flying a blimp over their building," Castro said.

Cloninger's David Wilson said in a statement, "There is competition between all car dealerships. Our main goal is to sell cars. This incident is not about sales, it's a bad situation brought about because of bad judgment."

Ken Jackson of Team Chevrolet-Cadillac-Geo said, "Because this case is still under police investigation we choose to have no comment at this time."

Wyatt said an initial report that the shooter pointed the gun at him is not true.

Police said civil negotiations are going on and it's up to the victims, Wyatt and Carolina Airships, to pursue criminal charges or not.

Carolina Airships, the owners of the blimp, estimate the damage at $10,000. It is being repaired at the plant where it was built in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

scottrc

Maybe we should be desinging our blimbs to defend themselves.

meowy84

Only in America....LOL I'm surprised this didn't happen somewhere in Cali.

spinbotz

I'm glad the shooter and the resulting damage was taken care of. Regardless of who is renting the airship be it someone you dislike, or competition, it's still considered destruction of private property/rental and will result in prosecution should the miscreant be caught.

mikekosatka

My Feedback: (7)

If you are flying advertizing over someone elses property ( do you understand how low you have to be to be taken down by a shot gun?) you deserve to be shot down... A arguement could be made that it was to stop a "hate crime" cou;d the KKK put butming crosses under balloons asd float them over blsck churches?
Gun fire is inappropriate but a r/c kamikazi???

Scar

My Feedback: (3)

I'll bet my FW190 that blimp wasn't taken down by shot. Hadda been a slug. Maybe it wasn't a shotgun at all, but a rifle.

If the blimp was low enough to be taken down by shot... there wouldn't have been any damage!

Best wishes,
Dave Olson

slowstang88

are you serious scar? my 878 will easily do 30 yds with trash skeet shot..ill bet my piece o crap flexy flyer tt01 that it very well could have been shot