Former NASA Engineer Designed Glitter Bomb Trap To Avenge Amazon Delivery Theft Victims (cnbc.com)

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. But for Mark Rober, it's much sweeter served smart, smelly and covered in glitter. From a report: The former NASA engineer-turned-YouTube star has received plaudits online after designing a booby trap to avenge all those who've fallen victim to a new wave of neighborhood crime: doorstep delivery theft. Rober spent six months combining GPS tracking, cameras, fart spray and glitter in an elaborate and amusing mechanism after discovering thieves had stolen an Amazon delivery from his doorstep.

In a video posted on his channel, the 38-year-old, who helped design the U.S. space agency's Curiosity Rover, said his engineering experience left him well-placed to "take a stand" after dismissive police left him feeling "powerless." "If anyone was going to make a revenge ... package and over-engineer the crap out of it, it was going to be me," said Rober, who spent nine years with NASA.

Comments

One big lawsuit waiting to happen

[mykepredko]

While I applaud Mr. Rober, I would think that he has set himself up for a huge lawsuit by whomever took the package. The glitter being thrown about the car is definitely a danger to eyes as well as the respiratory system, the chemicals in the fart spray could trigger anaphylactic shock. This could be big money for the perpetrator and their lawyer.

IIRC, in South Africa you can booby-trap your car (or at least you could) to deter/punish theives, but I don't believe you can do anything like it anywhere else.

Maybe the police don't care but I suspect Mr. Rober could be out a lot more than just an Amazon package.

Re:One big lawsuit waiting to happen

[Software]

He has 4.4 million subscribers. He is a YouTube star, he's not just attempting to be one.

Re:One big lawsuit waiting to happen

[hey!]

The real genius of this device is that it was designed to be funny without causing any kind of serious injury or damage. In fact you can hear some of the thieves on the video laughing. The glitter spreading mechanism is pretty lame; it's like shaking a box of litter around the edge of the box. He could have used a can of compressed air or some kind of pyrotechnic squib to distribute the glitter, and it would end up everywhere, but that includes peoples' eyes.

There are going to be the inevitable suggestions for how to make the device more damaging or dangerous; and the reason this guy didn't do anything like throwing dye or shrapnel isn't that he wasn't clever enough to see the possibilities. He was clever enough to see the weak point in his plans: the thief-turned-victim has your home address. Get too nasty and he might return the favor with a molotov cocktail or even a bullet.

Re: One big lawsuit waiting to happen

[Zero__Kelvin]

What law do you claim he violated? I can't think of a single law that states that it is illegal to spray theives with glitter. In some states it is legal for him to shoot and kill the theif. Also, this is a design, which is protected by the first amendment. He could design a nuclear bomb and post it and be well within his rights ,(I am assuming US jurisdiction because NASA is a US agency.) IOW, do you put any thought at all into your words before you write them?

Re:One big lawsuit waiting to happen

[Anonymous Coward]

While I applaud Mr. Rober, I would think that he has set himself up for a huge lawsuit by whomever took the package.

Had you read his design info you would know he is more than fine with that.
If you watched the video even you would hear him imply that is desired.
To press a civil suit, the thief would need to admit to a felony criminal act and would be punished, which is all this guy wanted in the first place.
He also spent significant time building the thing. It's perfectly reasonable he would be willing to spend at least up to that much time going to the court to defend himself since that means the thief is 100% going to jail now. Again, that was the original goal.

Then the separate issue that having glitter delivered to you isn't a crime, so wouldn't be his fault the thief was exposed to it.
Commercially sold "fart spray" has never done anything like you just made up about it.
The onus is on the thief to show medical documentation such a thing is even possible, and if it was possible and there was such documentation the stuff wouldn't be on the market anymore.

At all but a city level this guy committed *no* crimes, but even if he chose to do so, if the police don't feel property theft is a worth while crime to peruse, now you know exactly the level of crime you can do and have it ignored too.

Just avoid crimes with higher punishment levels, as then you risk doing something the police *would* investigate.
But clearly he is already thinking along those lines, so will be fine there. After all, he could have stopped at the GPS tracker level and just gone over to assault the thief if he didn't care about breaking laws.

but why ?

[religionofpeas]

Why do people find it acceptable that valuable packages are just left on the doorstep ? Where I live, the delivery guys ring the door bell, hands over the package, and takes my name and signature as proof of delivery.

What happens if the package gets stolen ? Does UPS pay you back ?

Re:but why ?

[arth1]

Why do people find it acceptable that valuable packages are just left on the doorstep ?

Because we like to live in a world where we feel safe without having to take extra precautions. There are still places where people don't lock their doors and leave their keys in their cars in case a neighbor needs to borrow it in an emergency.
That should be the standard, not an exception.

Re: Mostly Harmless

[c6gunner]

he could always claim he left it out as a prank for a friend, and the thief got in the way

Not any more he can't.

Biting back... with a sign

[mileshigh]

More booby-trapped packages in general might dissuade casual thieves. Ditto for law enforcement.

Meanwhile, thanks for doing the hard work and getting the publicity, Mark. Now, all I have to do to discourage theft is to put up a sign that says "Warning: packages may explode" with suitable graphic.

Seriously, what happened to the police's "broken windows" policy? I thought they were now supposed to investigate and prosecute small offenses like this to a) create a culture of obeying the law, and b) make citizens feel like the cops have their backs so they don't go vigilante. Which is what happened in this case.

Re: Mostly Harmless

[Zero__Kelvin]

Yeah ... He could claim that. It isn't as though there is any evidence widely available that he designed it specifically as retribution against theives. (As usual, you are an idiot saying phenomenally stupid shit.)

Re:I'm honestly sad..

[PeeAitchPee]

These people have already been beaten, or they wouldn't have wound up as thieves. Let's find a way to help them before they fall to this level instead of beating them down afterwards.

Bull fucking shit. A lot of people are just bad regardless of what happened to them (or didn't), their socio-economic status, etc. Some people would rather steal than earn something. Quit pretending that everyone who does this was somehow a victim first -- that's naive nonsense at best. This isn't anywhere remotely like the "stealing bread to feed my starving family" cliche -- it's opportunistic twats cowardly stealing from others who are out working. Anyone who does this absolutely deserves a solid ass kicking, at a minimum.