Glitter Bomb 2.0 vs Porch Pirates
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN brings it up as the obligatory link whenever package theft or booby-trapped parcels come up.
What it is
Mark Rober spends eleven months building and testing a glitter bomb package with GPS and cameras to get back at porch pirates who steal parcels.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2022 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends ubj · 2022-12 · on “Porch pirates stole 260M packages this year”
Obligatory links to YouTuber Mark Rober's quest for vengeance against porch pirates: * Glitter Bomb 1.0 vs Porch Pirates: [LINK] * Glitter Bomb 2.0 vs Porch Pirates: [this video] * Glitter Bomb 3.0 vs Porch Pirates: [LINK] * Exploding Glitter Bomb 4.0 vs Package Thieves: [LINK] * Car Thieves vs the Final Glitter Bomb 5.0: [LINK]
Cites bko · 2024-12 · on “Home Depot tracked a crime ring and found an unusual suspect (2023)”
This is positive. I get the suspicion that a lot of retail theft and porch pirates are organized. This means that chasing after a few bad actors can make a huge difference. I always wondered why it was easy enough for someone like Mark Rober to setup a glitter bomb with GPS that followed the stolen packages to the person's home, but somehow these simple techniques aren't used more broadly by police. With AirTags I've even heard stories about people informing police the whereabouts of their stolen packages but police were unable to actually do anything about it for some reason. Hopefully now the tide is shifting and police go after these theft rings. [this video]