Pueblo man accused of harassing homeless people with drone is posting new videos online

A Pueblo developer has been posting new videos to a social media account in which they use a drone to film people who are homeless for comedic effect, an act that has been condemned by drone experts and homeless advocates.

Henry “Hank” Borunda, a prominent developer who owns at least $2 million worth of property in Pueblo, is the person behind the account. In November, he uploaded nearly 50 new videos to the Instagram page “bumsndrones,” which had been inactive for more than a year following the Chieftain's initial reporting on the videos and subsequent investigations by the Pueblo Police Department and Federal Aviation Administration.

Borunda before the hiatus posted videos of a drone being used to provoke people who are homeless in parts of Pueblo. Music plays in the background of the video, seemingly to mock the person being filmed.

Borunda’s videos last year perturbed drone experts and homeless advocates who felt the videos and his behavior constituted harassment and violated FAA drone regulations.

The FAA is continuing to investigate Borunda and his social media accounts that contain the drone content. The agency's legal office is reviewing its case on the matter, a spokesperson recently told the Chieftain.

Borunda did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Outside of his activity on the account, Borunda earlier this year helped open La Bella Union Plaza at 318 S. Union Avenue, which he owns. He’s made significant political contributions to local candidates, donating $1,000 in August 2022 to Mayor Nick Gradisar’s mayoral campaign and $2,000 this year to Heather Graham’s bid for mayor, according to campaign finance records.

New videos mimic content from last year

Nearly all of the new content on Borunda’s account is similar. In some videos, people appear agitated by the drone and at times throw objects or gesture at it with their middle fingers. In others, drone footage captures people who appear to be using illegal substances with the footage overlaid with music.

More: 'It's subhuman': Videos show Pueblo drone provoking unhoused people for social media

In at least three of the new videos, one or more items are dropped by the drone to the person being filmed. Borunda titled one of those clips "weed drops."

Some of the new videos were captured at Loaf N’ Jug and Carl’s Jr. on Sante Fe Avenue, an area frequented by people in Pueblo who are homeless. It’s unclear if the footage was recently captured or shot during the height of the page’s activity last year.

Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said when the videos first came out that she felt Borunda was mocking, bullying and harassing people who are homeless.

“It was difficult to watch people put in humiliating and exposed positions,” she said.

Borunda told Denver Westword last year that he posts the videos to “shine a light” on how the unhoused live and “inspire change.” His initial TikTok page featuring the videos generated tens of thousands of followers and nearly 1 million likes, though the social media platform later removed it because it violated the its community guidelines, Westword reported.

Borunda's videos continue to circulate on TikTok, however. His page remains active on YouTube but his content is most prominent on Instagram, where his page has 156,000 followers.

Borunda holding contest seeking logo for ‘bumsndrones’ accounts

Borunda is offering $500 to a graphic designer who can craft a logo for the “bumsndrones” Instagram and YouTube accounts.

In a screenshot of his contest posting on 99designs shared with the Chieftain, Borunda states he is seeking a “homeless hunter drone” logo for the accounts that “film homeless people with a drone and make comedic funny videos out of them.”

Borunda made the post private and tagged it as “logo and brand” and “games and recreational.”

A graphic designer who uses the 99designs website, whom the Chieftain has granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, shared a screenshot of the contest description and reported Borunda’s post to the company.

More: Pueblo police chief, former officer sued for alleged use of excessive force

A 99designs representative told the designer that Borunda’s post “does not violate its terms of use for design contests” and that the company is not able to remove a contest “based on personal opinions or beliefs unless it is spreading false information or is illegal.”

At one point, 17 graphic designers submitted 61 designs for the contest. Borunda gave one of the designs a five-star rating, the designer that spoke with the Chieftain said.

Borunda ran a separate contest on 99designs that produced a logo for Colorado Cannabis Exchange, a cannabis store in Pueblo County’s Stem Beach.

Drone use could be violating local laws, FAA drone regulations

Pueblo PD spokesperson Frank Ortega said a person operating a drone as depicted in Borunda’s videos could be violating the city’s laws on harassment, but a person must report that they feel harassed or annoyed by that action to police. No one has done so, Ortega said Wednesday.

The city of Pueblo in its municipal code does not regulate drone use but states “aircraft shall register in accordance with the procedures established by the FAA.” Some municipalities in the state have local ordinances concerning drones.

Vic Moss, a drone expert based in Colorado, said Borunda could be violating multiple FAA drone regulations, including one that forbids reckless flight. He added that the “entire drone community is incredibly disappointed in the actions of this drone operator.”

“He certainly doesn’t deserve the title of pilot,” Moss told the Chieftain last year. “It’s a horrid thing he’s doing and he needs to stop, not just for the drone community, but holy crud, you just don’t do that to people.”

Borunda’s claim that his videos seek to inspire change among the unhoused was disputed by Bob Walker, owner and operator of The Edge ski and paddle shop in Pueblo, who alleged Borunda used a drone to harass him amidst a property dispute.

Walker told the Chieftain he was contacted by the FAA regarding Borunda’s alleged drone use toward him.

“I don’t know how he gets away with that,” Walker said of Borunda’s drone activity. “Some people think it’s OK and kind of funny, but if you look at it, there’s a lot of people that just think it’s disgusting.”

After the incident, Borunda sent a video to the Chieftain in which he insinuated that Walker was a "snitch" for reporting his encounter with the drone to police.

In the video, Borunda used sound effects of a chainsaw and crying baby, the former of which was seemingly employed to mock Walker’s description of the drone, which he said is "not a toy, it’s loud. It’s like a chainsaw coming down on you." The other sound effect was apparently used to insult Walker for his assessment of the alleged harassment.

Walker did not file an official police report but spoke with Pueblo PD’s Sgt. Jason Smith, who at the time of the incident led the department’s drone unit.

Borunda on his personal Instagram page has also posted videos of a drone being used to capture footage of bears. One of the videos appeared to be captured in Telluride. In each of them, the bears seemed aware of the drone's presence and in one, appear to be pursued by it.

State regulations stipulate that a drone can't be used to "look for, scout or detect wildlife" as an aid in a hunt. It's unclear from the footage if the drone was being used for that purpose, said Cody Purcell, the Colorado City and Rye district wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Purcell also said it's unclear if the drone use depicted in the videos violates a CPW regulation that prohibits harassment of wildlife. That occurs when a person does something to "endanger, worry, impede, annoy, pursue, chase, drive or torment wildlife," among other actions. More information would be required to make such a determination, he said.

Based on the nature of the videos, Purcell said CPW could perceive it as "something worth investigating" to determine what the circumstances were and allow CPW to do its "best to represent the state's wildlife."

Chieftain reporter Anna Lynn Winfrey contributed to this report.

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo developer posts new videos on social media mocking homeless