Are porch pirates stealing your Amazon boxes from your front door before you can fetch them? One man is getting revenge.
Mark Rober's background as a NASA engineer and YouTube personality was perfect preparation to design a package-thief trap that records video of the perpetrator's reaction.
Rober on Monday shared his video, titled "Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap," with his 4 million followers.
He explains that he wanted to get back at the people who steal packages from outside homes where delivery services have them unsecured and visible from the street. He spent 6 months designing the perfect trap.
Rober used an empty Apple product box as the bait and loaded it with some sophisticated gadgets.
Sensors detect when the package has left the victim's front porch. Four cell phone cameras then begin recording video and uploading the footage and GPS data to remote servers. When the thief opens the package a shower of glitter emerges via a motorized launcher.
The second assault is several bursts of foul odor from a store-bought can of prank fart spray.
The cameras are rolling as the thief gets covered in glitter and inhales the stink. Expletives fly. The device is cast aside.
And, theoretically, a lesson has been learned. Or, at least, a gadget geek has been entertained.
About the Writers
Steven Adams is a Tribune-Review multimedia editor. You can contact Steven at 412-380-5645 or sadams@tribweb.com.
