Online shopping is wonderful, but unfortunately sometimes sketchy things can happen to your packages when they arrive – or when they don’t.
Engineer and YouTube star Mark Rober knows the struggle. He realized people were stealing his stuff – which he discovered through home video – but did not know what to do.
He knows his stuff, too. After all, he did help design the Mars Rover.
Now he needed to put an end to this.
In a YouTube video that went viral immediately (below), he stated that he reported the crime to the local police who told him they did not have time to investigate the incident. Which is extra frustrating because Rober already did a lot of the research by capturing the act on his home surveillance camera.
So what next? Rober decided to do something quite brilliant.
He used his engineering expertise to build a “glitter bomb” inside a fake Amazon package.
It was loaded with fart spray (yes, you read that correctly) and not one but four cameras, so he could capture the whole thing.
It was set up so that when the thieves opened the package, their home or cars would be drenched in a fart smell that emitted a smell every 30 seconds and a ton of glitter. This is partially in hopes that the thieves throw out the box so that Rober can use the GPS to recover it. The best part: it would all be captured on video for the world to watch on the internet.
And just to inject a bit more of humor, Rober listed the return address using the names and location from Home Alone.
Apparently, the whole process took 6 months of planning, designing, and testing. And according to Rober, it was worth every second.
Getting your packages stolen sucks. Sure, you never got what you paid for inside the box, but it’s also just super violating and creepy.
After opening his package, the thieves probably had to go order a vacuum on the internet! Hope no one steals it when it is delivered though.
We definitely would not recommend doing this yourself… You’d probably get in trouble. But Rober needed to nail down the thieves, and he knew just how to do it.
Unfortunately, the increase in online shopping is leading to more and more package stealing.
Homeowner Derek Freudenthaler from Ontario had packages stolen off his porch twice but also caught the thief in action through a surveillance camera.
For the first theft, they got home and did not see a box on their doorstep. That’s when they knew there was a problem. Then they discovered a ton of open boxes at the end of the street, making it a problem for all of their neighbors.
But Freudenthaler got his revenge, just like Rober. It may not have been as scientific, but it was classic and hilarious.
For the next expected theft, he saved one of his daughter’s used diapers and taped it poop-side-up in a box and then left it in the right place on the doorstep to get a perfect view of the thief.
It also included a little note that let the thief know that he got a shot of him and hope he had a great holiday.
It’s scary to have your packages stolen, but it’s great to know that we can get back at these thieves!
Watch more below.
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