SEATTLE -- Police say an Amazon.com employee from out of town was the operator of a drone that buzzed the Seattle Space Needle this week.

Witnesses told police they saw the craft fly back into a fifth-floor room of a nearby hotel. Police contacted the man and he admitted operating the drone equipped with a camera Tuesday. He told authorities he wanted to try out the craft he recently purchased.

Police had received reports the drone had crashed into the landmark of Seattle's 1962 World's Fair, but they saw no evidence of that.

The man agreed not to fly his drone in public while in town.