Two men were arrested early Monday morning for flying a small drone too close to a New York Police Department (NYPD) helicopter.

Detective Mark Nell, an NYPD spokesman, told Ars that a police helicopter was on routine patrol near the George Washington Bridge in the northwestern part of Manhattan when the pilot spotted the drone orbiting above the bridge.

“During that time, the drone ascended approximately 2,000 feet into the air and came close to the aviation unit, causing it to veer off of its flight pattern,” Nell said, noting that the officers radioed down to ground units. “There were two individuals that were arrested after the drone landed.”

The two men were Wilkins Mendoza, 34, and Remy Castro, 23, both of Manhattan. They face charges of reckless endangerment. Both men have retained private attorneys and were released on their own recognizance.

According to a recent investigative report from The Washington Post, 23 accidents have occurred involving authorized drones since 2009. The Federal Aviation Administration also reported that "pilots have reported 15 close calls with small rogue drones near airports in the past two years."

The FAA is expected to publish new commercial drone regulations by 2015. However, late last month, the Department of Transportation inspector general said that the new rules would miss that deadline and would likely be pushed back to at least 2016.

“It’s just a toy.”

According to the Christian Science Monitor, Castro dismissed the incident. “It’s just a toy. The copter came to us,” he said in court.

In a video produced by the New York Daily News, the two men showed off their small drone, which appears to be similar to a DJI Phantom and may have had a GoPro camera on board. Castro told the Daily News that the drone was only in the air for “15 minutes or 10 minutes, somewhere around there.”

Jonathan Castro, Remy’s brother, also told the Daily News that they have “video proof” that the NYPD’s helicopter was chasing the drone. "He's endangering our lives and himself by flying on top of our heads when we're just flying here," Jonathan Castro said in the video. "They're really wasting taxpayers' money following a little drone."