This is the third year that engineer turned YouTube creator Mark Rober has sought smelly revenge on porch pirates using a custom built glitterbomb which also includes copious amounts of fart spray.
As he did last year, Rober once again did some fine tuning to his creation. One change was a custom welcome mat which doubles as a charger to keep the batteries at full power until the moment the thief walks off with the package. This helps to ensure that the batteries are working when the box is opened and the 4 phones inside have enough charge left to capture the entire encounter.
Another improvement stems from something he saw a number of thieves do last year. After opening the box, they would quickly shove the cover back down blocking some of the glitter and fart spray from getting out. This year, Rober added simple metal posts which pop out once the cover comes off and prevent it from being put back on. It’s a simple solution but, as you’ll see, only one person figured out how to defeat it.
Rober said from the start that this was about petty revenge against people who steal and expect to get away with it. And this year is more of the same. He does make an effort to point out that, even in difficult times, 90 percent of people who saw the package sitting exposed beneath an apartment complex mailbox passed by without touching it. Of the remaining ten percent who did pick it up, 7 percent tried to contact the person it was sent to and get their package to them. Only 3 percent of people resorted to stealing.
That’s not bad but it’s still depressing to hear one of the conversations between a boy and his mom that got picked up by the recording devices. The pair were discussing how to get away with the theft. “I need to cut this up and get rid of it,” the woman said. She added that she would flush the label down the toilet.
“So no one can find it?” the boy said.
“Yep,” mom replied.
“It feels good,” the boy said.
“What feels good?” she asked.
“Stealing,” he said.
As the conversation goes on we learn that mom isn’t even going to let the young thief keep the stolen merch. “This is my Christmas present,” she told him. Then after the glitterbomb goes off she clarifies that it was a joke. Her son sounds relieved that maybe that means they won’t get in trouble for stealing.
Mother of the year right there. No amount of glitter and fart spray is going to fix that.
Finally, in the midst of making his YouTube video Rober wanted to see if he could send a package to some of the people who kept making scam calls to his cell phone. He wound up doing this but in the process helped uncover a large fraud ring which was stealing thousands of dollars from unwitting people. He was able to get some of that money back for the victims but the whole thing became so involved that he is going to do a separate video on that in the future.
Overall this year’s entry sometimes feels like it delved a little too deep and uncovered some genuine darkness just beneath what should have been some lighthearted revenge.
