Man Accused Of Spying On Cranston Resident Through Window With Drone

CRANSTON, RI — A man was arrested days after a Cranston woman spotted a drone peering into her bathroom window, the Cranston Police Department said in a news release Friday evening.

Police responded to the woman's home on Midland Road at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, when she said had just returned home from work and was about to get in the shower when she heard a buzzing sound coming from the bathroom window, which was slightly open, according to police.

Thinking the noise had something to do with her pool, the woman told police she went out to her backyard, where she spotted a drone hovering outside the bathroom window.

When the woman approached the drone, it moved away quickly before bitting a tree branch and falling to the ground, according to police. She then grabbed it and submerged it in her pool to disable it, police said.

Days later, on Friday, detectives were able to determine that the drone belonged to a convicted sex offender named Christopher Jones, who was arrested on video voyeurism charges after he admitted to being the drone's operator, police said.

According to the law, a person is guilty of video voyeurism when that person, "for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification or stimulation, looks into an occupied dwelling or other building by use of an imaging device that provides images of the interior of a dwelling," police said.

Jones is awaiting arraignment at Cranston Police headquarters.