well, bugger it , I will necro-post because I DO have something to add, as I admitted to something 5 years ago in this thread, so here's an update.... So as I stated back in 2013, I did something whilst intoxicated that I deeply regret. So ? the legal ramifications ? I got 6 weeks of what they call restorative justice..all that involved was turning up every Saturday at a recycling center and helping out...so I was helping some rather colorful characters disassemble microwaves, appliances of all sorts really. I actually had a lot of fun, scored quite a few interesting items for nothing, and generally enjoyed it, some punishment...Ironically it pretty much did fit the crime, because at the end of the day, it was a complete load of bollocks, I never hurt anybody, a single quick pass of a green laser over a choppers tale at night and all hell breaks loose. As I said, I contacted the pilot, he didn't even know it happened, but some ass hole in the back, who was spying on the public with FLIR for no good reason spat the dummy and lied his ass off in court, stating that I held the beam on the chopper for at least a full thirty seconds and he was blinded etc etc just blatant porkies. The real punishment was the long wait for the case to go to court, the anticipation, the worry, THAT was the punishment..... Even now, every now and then, we here in NZ still hear of someone who deliberately shines high powered lasers into cockpits of civilian passenger craft coming in to land at major airports...now THAT really is in the realms of terrorism and truly anarchic insanity. NZ is a small country, with relatively few large online retail outlets, the largest of which has been leaned on by the NZ police/Government to stop anyone trying to sell laser pointers with a power level over 5 mW...so I guess there's still a lot of online retailers out there with stocks of these things growing cobwebs. Needless to say, they confiscated my two ,the green and purple 50 and 30 mW respectively, and I have zero intention of ever buying any more, of course. They are fun to fool around with but the mere act of using them over populated areas even when no aircraft are around is still quite likely to draw the ire of many very conservative old people regardless of what it is aimed at...anyway, I've learn't my lesson..don't mess with lasers at night at Christmas when drunk and methadon-ed up to the eyeballs....