Former NASA Engineer Makes a Box That Tortures Package Thieves

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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Mark Rober used to build autonomous spacecraft bound for other planets. Now, he's a YouTuber. So one day, when he finally got fed up with thieves stealing packages from his doorstep, he did more than just catch them. He built an elaborate device to screw with the thieves, and documented the whole process.

Check out the video of the "trap" in action here, and be sure watch Sean Hodgin's video on making the trap.

I got upset that my package was stolen so I made a glitter bomb revenge package.
 
This could be cheaper. When the package is stolen it should text a police officer and call them through one of the phones to talk to the perp. But they can't hang up, only drop it. May be a deterrent.
 
Thankful for the captions, not listening to audio at work. Looks like he had GPS info, so I hope he was able to relay that info to authorities.
 
I'll never understand the mindset. There's few things I hate more than thieves. I work my butt off 40= hours a week to earn something, and you think you deserve it just because you picked it up off my porch? Hopefully, these guys actually get punished, instead of the cops brushing it off like it isn't their job.
 
ryno9100 said:
I'll never understand the mindset. There's few things I hate more than thieves. I work my butt off 40= hours a week to earn something, and you think you deserve it just because you picked it up off my porch? Hopefully, these guys actually get punished, instead of the cops brushing it off like it isn't their job.
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I would support driver's license revocation for multiple years per theft.
 
Questions about legality here. As harmless as it seems it is still a booby trap and a booby trap is illegal.
Thieves have successfully sued because of that issue.
 
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This is hilarious!

Fill it with white powder next time. :p

That said, is this really a big problem?

I live right on a main road, in a near urban suburb bustling with foot traffic. My front door is clearly visible from the street. I am a prolific online orderer. Every couple of days there is a package sitting at my door until I come home from work. (Some days they sit there for several days before I get home from a trip.)

If anyone should be a victim of this, it would seem not should be me, yet never once have any of my packages been touched.

Thank the good Lord for living in Massachusetts I guess. Some of the lowest crime rates in the country.

Maybe I should knock on wood?
 
Glitter and fart spray.. way too mild. As others have said, use something that really leaves it's mark like toner.

Otherwise, why is he hiding the identity of these people? Folks get mobbed on Twitter over less.. isn't this the kinda thing we ought to shame as a society?

He has footage and gps data. Make a public database of known package thieves.
 
Seventyfive said:
I would have gone with gunpowder, ball bearings, and then white phosphorous to hide the evidence but that's just me.
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Although it's probably a tongue in cheek joke (im guessing, i can't tell here sometimes). Going to jail for life over some cheap ass CRaP from Amazon being stolen by some loser isn't really a good idea. You basically would have made a lethal IED that potentially killed a US citizen(s) on US soil, it could put you in a very bad place in the eyes of the law. Last i heard vigilantism isn't looked upon too kindly by law enforcement, seen as it upto the police and the court system to deal out justice.

Sounds macho though and i agree there needs to be a much stiffer punishment (y)
 
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katanaD said:
the couple at the beginning.. out for a walk with backpacks holy hell..
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Yeah they just seem like regular people, almost like they are doing it just to do it...
Guy on my street had a big newegg box on his front porch all day, hope he eventually got it inside..
 
chockomonkey said:
Glitter and fart spray.. way too mild. As others have said, use something that really leaves it's mark like toner.

Otherwise, why is he hiding the identity of these people? Folks get mobbed on Twitter over less.. isn't this the kinda thing we ought to shame as a society?

He has footage and gps data. Make a public database of known package thieves.
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You know, people can find and attack him too? More incentive for that when actual damage occurs, social or otherwise.
 
ryno9100 said:
I'll never understand the mindset. There's few things I hate more than thieves. I work my butt off 40= hours a week to earn something, and you think you deserve it just because you picked it up off my porch? Hopefully, these guys actually get punished, instead of the cops brushing it off like it isn't their job.
Click to expand...

We had a couple of porch pirates (a guy and his girlfriend) apprehended last year. They were apparently selling the packages for drug money but fortunately were stupid enough to be driving around in an SUV filled with drugs, guns, and stolen packages at 5 AM one morning and a cop pulled them over while they were casing out subdivisions.

If they had stolen one of my packages and I happened to be home to be alerted by their presence on my porch, they would've needed to sell those packages for great health insurance because they both would've been hospitalized for a long time. :)
 
We used to have a thing in the Army called “Micro-pulverized CS powder” for chemical warfare training. Finer than talcum powder and it gets in everywhere... and burns like acid.
 
Great guy with a lot of skill there to engineer such an amazing device the reactions were priceless.

Sucks the cops won't get off their ass and take care of this problem when given everything they need to track down someone (face/license plate) Like it or not, the solution is actually really simple... catch a few of them, chop their hand off in a very public spectacle, sew them up, and send them on their way. Package theft would drop to 0% if they knew what happens when they get caught.

"but whaaaa that's barbaric and so cruel" -- so what, they made the conscious choice to steal and should have to live with the results of that stupidity for the rest of their life.
 
collegeboy69us said:
Great guy with a lot of skill there to engineer such an amazing device the reactions were priceless.

Sucks the cops won't get off their ass and take care of this problem when given everything they need to track down someone (face/license plate) Like it or not, the solution is actually really simple... catch a few of them, chop their hand off in a very public spectacle, sew them up, and send them on their way. Package theft would drop to 0% if they knew what happens when they get caught.

"but whaaaa that's barbaric and so cruel" -- so what, they made the conscious choice to steal and should have to live with the results of that stupidity for the rest of their life.
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When the porch pirates I mentioned in my previous post were caught, there was a good amount of outrage directed towards them but unfortunately, the usual crowd of bleeding hearts couldn’t resist the urge to cast the thieves as victims with tear-filled stories of upbringing, lack of education, etc. Screw them.
 
Galvin said:
Is package theft really getting that bad these days?
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Yes.

Amazon and a Local PD here are working together to place GPS tracked packages in high crime areas.

Last year their were multiple instances of roving bands of porch pirates in our area actually following UPS and Fedex trucks and picking up packages as fast as they could deliver them.

We coincidentally have a high rate of drug abuse in our area.
 
Great video. Really pissed me off when the thieves would react like they were so inconvenienced by the glitter and the smell.

I'm curious, if this happens to you, are you basically out of luck with your purchase? Can Amazon or the carrier do anything for you at this point?

I live in an apartment and always have my packages delivered to the front office but man I would totally hate it if my stuff went missing. I second the 'wait in the bushes with a baseball bat' idea mentioned above.
 
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