Woman injured in drone attack in Gautier

In Gautier, neighbors in the area of Dolphin Drive say a prankster has been menacing residents with a drone. Now, someone’s been injured after it reportedly dropped a decorative anchor on a local woman.

Sometimes bad luck falls right out of the sky.

A Gautier woman is injured after a metal object fell from a drone and struck her on her back porch – and the neighbors say this isn’t a one-time attack.

Twenty-year-old Natalie English and her family already knew that the drone meant trouble when it appeared behind their house. Before she could find cover, something metal and heavy fell and fractured her forearm. “Like, I look up and I had my flashlight on because it was dark outside, and I turned my head down and I’m looking at my phone for a second – they dropped this really big anchor on me.”

The object appears to be a decorative half-pound boat anchor, according to police.

The perpetrator has allegedly been using a drone to prank people around the neighborhood at Dolphin Drive and Periwinkle Cove, dropping objects like glass bottles from above.

Natalie’s sister Serenity was there when the attack happened. “I posted in our Facebook watch group that we have for our neighborhood, and we’ve seen a lot of similar comments about people saying they were having water balloons dropped at their houses, people flying drones over their houses, lots of weird things.”

Natalie said she was screaming in pain just after the attack. “They said it could be fractured, but they said it’s a lot of severe swelling. They told me I need to wear this and follow up with another doctor until they tell me to take it off.”

“We heard it. And she was like, ‘Is that the drone again? Does it have glass again? If it is we need to go.’ She went to shine the light up and that’s when they dropped the anchor.”

Gautier police declined to comment but are canvassing the neighborhood. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact them.