It was a nice afternoon and JFK was landing 22, so I headed to North Woodmere Park for some spotting. I met forum member lijk604, but just as I got there they switched to Rwy 31. I talked him into heading over to Costco.
We were parked on the east side of the building, shooting for over an hour. I had the camera up shooting when I heard a car pull up behind me. When I looked, there were three of Nassau's Finest who had us surrounded. They asked what we were doing and to see our ID. They said someone and called and they needed to check us out.
When I told the officer speaking to me I was an aviation enthusiast, he said "So am I" and thought it was neat that I was an ex-Air Force pilot. One remarked that we must be getting some good photos, especially with my lens (the 100-400mm) One said, refering to the cop talking to me "Now he's going to want to get a camera like that". They copied our licence info, and returned to their cars. They did pull up next to each other to talk, and we took that as our cue to call it a day, as it was getting late.
Throughout the encounter, the officers were professional, polite, and somewhat friendly. They explained why they were questioning us, didn't make undue threats or say we couldn't that photos, or treat us as criminals.
All in all this was an A+ encounter.
Bookmarks