Getty Mark Rober
Former NASA scientist Mark Rober has gone viral again with the ingenious hack to stop porch pirates – the glitter bomb. He first made a glitter trap when someone stole a package on his porch last year. With porch pirates on the rise, he amped up his counterattack with the Glitter Bomb Trap 2.0.
The Glitter Bomb Trap 2.0 left a series of porch pirates wrinkling their noses at a fart bomb after they were covered in glitter. Watch a compilation of porch pirates bested by the glitter bomb here, or later in this post.
Rober explains on the video that he had a package stolen from his porch last year. Although he had surveillance footage of the thief, police were unable to charge a suspect. Rober took matters into his own hands with the Glitter Bomb Trap, inspired by one of his favorite Christmas movies, “Home Alone.” Macaulay Culkin even makes an appearance in the YouTube video.
Here’s what you need to know:
Mark Rober Spent 18 Months Working on a Trap to Avenge the Theft of a $5 Amazon Package
Someone stole a package from my porch and the police wouldn’t do anything about it. I’ve spent the last 11 months improving my original glitter bomb bait package which I present here for your consideration-
Mark Rober had a $5 Amazon package stolen from his porch last year. He caught the porch pirate on surveillance footage, but police did not make an arrest. He went viral with his glitter bomb trap last year, and then spent another 1 1/2 years perfecting the Glitter Bomb Trap 2.0.
“I quit my job at NASA to make Youtube videos,” he said.
The rates of porch pirates are increasing, so Rober increased his efforts, too. He spent 10 months improving the 2019 design of his glitter bomb. He streamlined the design, added a second bottle of fart spray and increased the potency of the spray. The spray is released every 30 seconds, designed to encourage the thieves to get the package out of their house. The bait packages are designed to look like a box of Bose headphones. They are equipped to sense they are being jostled, which triggers cameras on four phones to begin recording. The packages are also connected to GPS, and the bombs are filled with biodegradable glitter.
Rober added sound effects this year, beginning with a countdown after the fart spray and glitter bomb deploys.
“Nothing actually happens at the end, but they won’t know that,” he said on the video.
He also added fake police scanner chatter, to make a thief think the police are onto them.
“It seems the package may be in motion as well,” a voice says.
Rober also added soundbites from “Home Alone,” the inspiration behind the glitter bombs.
“Keep the change, ya filthy animal,” the package says to unsuspecting porch pirates before releasing fart spray.
“As far as I’m concerned, relatively harmless, karmic justice has never been so beautiful,” Rober said.
Mark Rober Awarded $400 to People Who Kept Their Neighbors’ Packages Safe
Dem feels when you wake up from your power nap from staying up all night editing to see #1 trending
While porch pirates were recorded on four cameras, blasted with one pound of glitter and shot with several rounds of fart spray, good Samaritans were awarded with $400. Rober explained on his video he encountered many good people throughout his experiment. They would take the packages to their homes for safekeeping and contact the person whose name was on the package. When they brought the package back, they were rewarded with $400 cash.
Rober put out a call on social media for volunteers to try out his glitter bombs. He received hundreds of applicants who reported multiple package thefts, and narrowed down the volunteers to a few scattered across the country.
The experiment captured several thieves on video, who made it onto his Youtube compilation. One woman dumped the package in a dumpster when the scanner chatter began.
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