Former NASA Engineer Thwarts Porch Pirates Again With 'Glitter Bomb 2.0' (engadget.com) 94
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Engadget: YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober is at it again with the Glitter Bomb 2.0 designed to give porch pirates some stinky karmic justice. After experiencing a package theft last year, Rober decided to exact revenge by creating the original glitter bomb. It looked like a real delivery and was designed to go off when opened by thieves, covering them with glitter and emitting a fart smell, while recording the whole thing. He made another one this year with an even nastier stench, and got an assist from the man who inspired the idea: Home Alone's Macaulay Culkin.
Rober said he spent six months retooling the bomb, which combines GPS trackers, smartphones with wide-angle cameras, fart spray and glitter. This time, the design was more streamlined, had much more powerful fart spray ("that's like proper poo," said one test subject), and featured sound effects like a countdown and police radio chatter. The whole thing was sponsored by Bose and the product box featured fake Bose "Buzz" headphones named after a Home Alone character. Rober distributed the packages to 10 volunteers around the U.S., who placed them on their porches as bait. One would-be theft kenned to the scheme after glitter spilled out, as he was apparently aware of the original video (which currently has 77 million views). Another volunteer just took the package himself, so Rober sent him a Scientology subscription and cringey postcards to his neighbors. After the first Glitter Bomb video was posted last year, Rober had to re-post it after discovering that several of the "victims" were actually friends of a volunteer who agreed to place the packages on his porch.
Rober said he spent six months retooling the bomb, which combines GPS trackers, smartphones with wide-angle cameras, fart spray and glitter. This time, the design was more streamlined, had much more powerful fart spray ("that's like proper poo," said one test subject), and featured sound effects like a countdown and police radio chatter. The whole thing was sponsored by Bose and the product box featured fake Bose "Buzz" headphones named after a Home Alone character. Rober distributed the packages to 10 volunteers around the U.S., who placed them on their porches as bait. One would-be theft kenned to the scheme after glitter spilled out, as he was apparently aware of the original video (which currently has 77 million views). Another volunteer just took the package himself, so Rober sent him a Scientology subscription and cringey postcards to his neighbors. After the first Glitter Bomb video was posted last year, Rober had to re-post it after discovering that several of the "victims" were actually friends of a volunteer who agreed to place the packages on his porch.
