Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Published , by Charles Singletary Jr
Thieves have grown exceptionally bold stealing packages right off the doorsteps of homeowners, but what happens when one draws the ire of a mechanical engineer that previously worked for NASA? Hilarious hijinks is what.
Mark Rober is said former NASA-employed engineer and he uses his skillset for unique creations, scientific experiments, and more on his YouTube channel. He learned he had a package theft problem when he saw that something allegedly delivered never actually arrived. Via his outside cameras, he spotted a couple that walked his neighborhood with backpacks and snatched up the item that was placed at his doorstep, so he devised a plan once the cops confirmed they wouldn't be able to track down the assailants.
How does this punishment for package stealers work? It's a pretty thoroughly thought out device from execution to recovery. The punishment comes in the form of a glitter bomb that gets sprayed around wherever the thief decides to open the package. The entire fiasco is recorded via four smartphones that are connected to a circuit board that pings GPS when the package is jostled. When the package is outside of a specific area, the cameras start recording.
One may be thinking that the incredibly annoying glitter clean-up job may be a small price to pay for four smartphones, but Rober figured that issue out as well. The phones are housed in a container that doesn't immediately reveal what they are and, as a lovely cherry on top, there's a fart spray that gets deployed five times every thirty seconds. The horrendous smell made the initial thief toss the package, which allowed Rober to deploy this decoy package and capture the reactions of multiple assailants. Even if the package wasn't ditched, Rober set up the phones to upload the footage to the cloud automatically.
This a pretty complex DIY solution for package thieves, but will hopefully inspire other victims to get creative while also deterring the thieves entirely. Tell us in Chatty what kind of hilarious punishment you'd deploy if someone grabbed a package off your own steps and stay tuned to Shacknews for other cool creations.