There was something in the news over the weekend about a Los Angeles arrest of the 22 year old grandson of Clark Gable, the 1930s actor. He and a friend were playing around with laser pointers and they shone them on a police helicopter. This is a felony and he was arrested, and is out something like $200k in bail. It seems like the guys were just goofing off with a new toy and didn't mean any harm.
The police line was that it interferes with the vision of the pilot, but my guess is that the're really worried about sighting devices.
What do you know about this sort of thing?