Just in time for Christmas. How many of you have had this happen to you? A package is delivered to your front door, you're not home, and someone steals the package.
Well, it happened to the wrong guy. Mark Rober, a gadget virtuoso, built a booby-trapped Amazon package. Woe be the thief who steals it.
And Mark also provided video cameras for recording reactions. It's quite ingenious and hilarious. And let this be a warning to you as you walk by your neighbor's house and an Amazon package is on the front porch.
Enjoy.
So what do you do if you’re not an engineer?
ReplyDeleteFake news. Lots of stories today about how the video was staged.
ReplyDeleteCoincidentally, right before I came to your blog, I read an interview with the creator of the glitter bomb where he admitted that, without his knowledge, some friends of friends of his had taken the package from his doorstep and then faked their reactions when they opened it. It's too bad, because the design and execution of the glitter bomb was wonderful. Mark Rober, the inventor, says his credibility on the net has really taken a hit because of this.
ReplyDeleteA situation occurred in this area, reported on the news, where, similarly a woman grabbed a delivered package off a front step. Again, similarly, she was caught on video.
ReplyDeleteThere the similarity breaks down. When she opened the package, she found inside a species of "superworms" and she tossed the whole thing--superworms and all--into a roadside trash bin.
I want one. This could be the number one gift from Amazon.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the advantages of being broke. I can't afford to buy anything, so nothing gets delivered to my house. Therefore, no packages get stolen off of my porch.
ReplyDeleteM.B.
No, it's not "fake news", though I know in this age of Trump, screaming fake news at everything that conflicts with one's worldview is almost a requirement.
ReplyDeleteThe original reports were spawned by Rober's Youtube video. The subsequent news reports detailed how associates of Rober's friends staged some of the reactions to the glitter bomb. Both news reports were based on information available at the time. Later evidence showed that some of the responses were staged, so the media reported on that. So which one was fake? Or could it be that new facts came to light that changed the original story? Fake news would be if the media reporting the incident was aware that it was a lie, and reported it anyway. If original news stories can never be changed even when new information comes to light, then I guess Dewey became president in 1948.
Jebus, every time I hear the words "fake News" or "virtue signalling" or "Nazi", I think this country is circling the drain just a little bit faster.
Speaking of this age...
ReplyDeleteHey Ken!
Longtime reader, more recent listener, and general all around adoring fan. And just wanted to say -- I know you don't like to do too many political posts. And I get it, I'm not privy to some of the mindbending comments you may be getting.
But I actually think in the middle of this mess we need more politics, not less, and if you've got a platform, why not use it? Besides, for the rest of us, if you've got a comedic perspective on any of it... share it, we need a way to laugh at it!
Here was my best attempt:
So, imagine you're a studio exec, and I come into your office, and I say, "Well Ken, it's a great story, a racist billionaire conman gets elected president by pandering to the white nationalists who used to live in the shadows, but once he gets into office, it turns out, he's part of a Russian government conspiracy to destroy Western democracy............."
....You'd laugh me out of your office.... right...?
If he invents one for use with doormats being stolen, then I'd be interested. I've had two swiped in the last two years.
ReplyDeleteBeing home is no longer a defense against package thieves. Delivery-company employees (and lately postal employees as well) just throw them on the ground and run off without even bothering to knock or ring the doorbell, much less wait to see if you answer. Which means the expensive item you've been looking for all day may have been sitting outside the whole time. (Worse, you have the dreaded "we missed you" slip on your door, which means you probably won't see your package for days, if at all.)
ReplyDeleteI had a package stolen, so I started having everything sent to my work address.
ReplyDeleteI've got a book recommendation for you, definitely a must-read for a student of radio history and of General weirdness. Wolfman Jack is the most normal part of the story.
ReplyDeleteBorder Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves,
Gene Fowler, Bill Crawford
It’s not fake. There were two reactions in the original video that were “friends of friends” (after Rober out feelers out for voluntary victims), but he removed those two reactions from a subsequent upload.
ReplyDeleteActually, just to be clearer, Rober wasn’t asking for voluntary victims. That was my bad. He simply has the device on a friend’s porch, and that friend tipped off their friends without Rober’s knowledge. He’s removed the two bits of dubious footage now, and explains everything here:
ReplyDeletehttps://mobile.twitter.com/MarkRober/status/1075767629703372800
Aaron Sheckley is absolutely correct re "fake news"
ReplyDeleteWhatever I order, UPS or Fedex hands it off to the post office, which puts it in my (fairly capacious) mailbox. Apparently only postal workers can put things in a mailbox, by law. Anyway, I've had no problems with "porch pirates." When I lived in Memphis, Fedex (which is headquartered there!) would slap a note on the door, knock once and leave my package a mile away at the rental office. (If you think I'm not home, why knock?) This is better.
ReplyDeleteMy father's house was broken into and burglarized several times, by neighborhood kids. He never reported the incidents to the cops. He said that he'd rather have a few things missing than his house burned down. I can only hope the people who piss off porch snatchers don't suffer any serious retribution.
ReplyDelete@MarkP I’m sorry but that’s incredibly selfish. For a start, I know LOTS of people who have been burgled. All them reported it to the police. None of them suffered “retribution”, let alone their houses being burned down(!). (Burglars don’t target one house, they target lots. How on earth would they know to target your Dad anyway??)
DeleteSecondly, by not reporting it you have made your wider community less safe... just because you’re worried about yourself. Crimes should always be reported, even the ones police can do nothing about. (When they’re making budget decisions, the number of reported crimes is used to determine where that budget should go.)
I have nothing but sympathy for honest people and families, almost always very poor, who live in genuinely dangerous areas where they are victimized, and have little to no support from the legal system.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is just a douchebag with too much time on his hands.
Johnny, I used to think that, too. But these burglaries were one-off events by neighbors who knew that a single-parent household is empty during the day. When a mini bike was stolen, it was easy to see which neighbor suddenly had a new bike. A talk with the kid's father resulted in the return of the bike and, the next morning, all four tires on our car slashed. Another time we came home and saw the next-door neighbor's kid run out our newly-broken front door. The kid's older brother came over and took my brother aside. "This kid is going on to big things. It would be a real shame - a real shame - if anything got in his way."
ReplyDeleteIf these are the threats and retribution from kids, just think what a pissed-off adult junkie who just got an exploding or crap-filled package from your house is going to do.
Sadly, it was partially staged - https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glitter-bomb-package-thieves_us_5c18c976e4b02d2cae8cd646
ReplyDeleteBut it's nonetheless an awesome thought. I don't mind potential thieves having that image in th back of their minds.