Baltimore County arrests man who pointed laser at police helicopter

Danny Nyugen

The Baltimore Banner

January 13, 2025

Baltimore County Police have charged a man who admitted to shining a laser at a police helicopter heading toward Martin State Airport in December, authorities said Friday.

On Dec. 19, a police officer responded to a notification from two other officers in the aviation department who reported their aircraft has been struck twice with a green laser. Police used the helicopter’s imaging system to locate the origin of the laser: the rear of a home on the 800 block of Rosedale Avenue, according to police records.

The man, 50-year-old Anthony R. Wolff, was charged with two counts of reckless endangerment and one charge of pointing a laser at an aircraft, court records show.

Police went to the property, and Wolff admitted to shining the black “Cowjag” laser pointer at the police helicopter. Wolff told police he was “just zapping it everywhere” and provided officers with the pointer.

The arrest comes weeks after residents across the Northeast reported seeing drones or other aircraft — some purportedly as big as cars — speeding overhead. Some witnesses believed the flying objects posed a national security or public safety risk. However, federal officials shut this speculation down; they said many of the sightings appeared to be a combination of commercial and hobbyist drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft and stars mistakenly reported as drones.

Two days before Wolff shined his laser at the county’s helicopter, the Federal Aviation Administration reported a drastic uptick in laser strikes to aircrafts. On Dec. 17, pilots across the country reported 123 laser strikes, according to the FAA. That figure is usually around 30 per night, an FAA spokesperson told CNN.

Wolff is scheduled to appear in Towson District Court at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 10.