In 2018, engineer and YouTuber Mark Rober created a fake earplug package that punished porch thieves for stealing them – primarily with explosions of glitter and fart spray. In 2019, Rober released a second version of the Trojan box, raising the bar with more smelly spray and a voice from a police scanner. Now, Rober’s 2020 version of the glitterbomb trap is here, and it evokes the best reaction from thieves yet.
Rober recently posted the video of his new “Glitterbomb 3.0”, which he has been working on for a year. Though the porch thief blaster is just one of many wild projects the engineer has come up with this year. For example, Rober’s giant elephant toothpaste essentially turned into a wooden rocket, and his squirrel obstacle course was absolutely crazy.
For the Glitterbomb 3.0, Rober says he went for the Cybertruck aesthetic and made it incredibly angular. As for functionality, the device essentially does two things: scare – and, oddly, entertain – porch thieves – with fart spray, glitter, and police noises. It also records their responses using four phone cameras.
Mark Rober
However, the most crucial upgrade from this year’s Glitterbomb was the addition of ejector rods on the body of the device. The rods will pop out after someone opens the Buzz Buds box, which prevents them from using it as a shield. (And yes, Buzz is a reference to the character from Home alone.)
As for the actual effect of the Glitterbomb, it worked as intended most of the time. And to a shocking degree.
Mark Rober
Almost all the porch thieves who stole the Buzz Buds boxes opened them at home. And each of them was forced to contend with super-dank, Skunk-scented fart spray, as well as swirling, glittery discharges. A group of thieves who stole the Buzz Buds from a car even drove them around before they got so suspicious of its origins that they apparently shot it multiple times with a pistol.
In the end, Rober says he hopes his Glitterbombs will encourage porch thieves not to stop stealing. And while the device can fulfill that purpose, it seems people are becoming aware that these boxes are a thing. Rober has viewed these Glitterbomb videos over 100 million times alone, so that makes sense. It sounds like the engineer will have to get particularly creative next year if he wants to keep the pirates on the porch at bay.
Featured image: Mark Rober