Lost drone? Why the popular holiday gifts are going missing

BOSTON — Like any good pilot, Aiden Rood knows the number of successful landings should equal the number of successful take-offs but that's easier said than done with a toy drone.

Aiden is being extra careful with his quad-copter because of what happened with the first one he got for Christmas.

“I don't know how, but what happened, it kept going up, up, up above the trees, the houses and out of sight,” Aiden explained. “It was gone.”

Aiden and his dad searched for hours, but never found it.

“Day before on Christmas, I had flown it for a second and it took off on me too, so we felt bad and happy to get him another one,” Aiden’s father, Benjamin Rood, said.

This time of year, runaway drones have a lot of parents turning to the internet. On Facebook, we found hundreds of pleas from moms and dads and new "lost drone" groups popping up every day.

There's nothing you can do if your drone experiences a technical glitch or gets carried by the wind, but you can help avoid losing one to pilot error.

Search YouTube by the make and model of your drone for tips on how to fly it before you actually take to the sky.

Never take off with a low battery and consider writing your name and number on your drone, so if someone finds it, they will know it's yours.

Cox Media Group