After a man found a military drone in his backyard near downtown Colorado Springs, 11 News has learned why.

Fort Carson officials say the drone lost communication with the GPS and flew over the city unguided.

Ronald Fisk said the whole incident was surreal.

"I was working on a water heater in the yard. I turned around and it was laying on the ground. ... It was very lightweight, it had a 3-foot wingspan."

It was so lightweight, according to Fisk, that he never heard the drone.

"It's such lightweight material, like foam."

Fisk said it didn't dawn on him right away that it was actually a military drone.

"I thought it was some hobbyist that had it," he told 11 News.

It was the camera, Fisk said, that gave it away.

"There was a big camera like a drone you see on television with the military. ... It was definitely a military-style camera. So I tried to figure out what to do with it."

Fisk first tried to get the attention of whoever was on the other end of the camera.

"I wrote my phone number on a piece of paper thinking that since the camera was moving, that someone may be watching. So I wrote my phone number of a piece of paper and sat it in front of the camera for awhile thinking they may call my cell phone...that didn't work out [chuckles]."

Fisk eventually called police, who came and picked it up.

Fort Carson told 11 News they can't say how many or how often drones are flown because it's a security issue. But the post says they only intentionally fly them over Fort Carson, and the operator controlling it lost communication with it.

Our partners at The Gazette say when it was found in that neighborhood about 11 miles away, that's nearly double the drone's projected range of just over 6 miles.

Fort Carson officials say the drone was flying “in support of increased force protection measures on Ft. Carson.”

It's the first reported use of a drone to protect a local military installation.

The one that came down in the Springs is a Raven model; it’s about the size of a model plane.