A former NASA engineer creates a glitter- and stink-bomb trap for package thieves

The second video here - WELL worth a look: Former NASA engineer creates glitter bomb trap for package thieves | CNN

Serves 'em right, sez I!

I SO loved that, too bad he can’t use paint or something just a little more permanent.

Nerds rage against the machine! And build a better one.

This is one of those projects for which I think it should be relatively easy for civilians to get their hands on the dye-packs banks use for robberies.

Any place you can use something like that (a dye pack), I don’t see why you couldn’t use food coloring as well. Also, you could use (instead of or in addition to food coloring) UV dye. I know some pepper spray’s use this so that after the suspect washes off the pepper spray, they don’t realize the UV dye is there and when/if brought in for questioning, they glow under a UV light which makes it pretty obvious that they were the person sprayed.

I can tell you, first hand, that UV dye from the auto parts store is mostly invisible under regular light, but glows very brightly under UV light…no matter how many times you wash your hands.

This is stupid. People who do this shit are asking for trouble: “thieves” who are injured will sue you, and/or come back later to visit you. Parents of “thieves” who are minors who are injured will destroy you in court.

This is cowardly vigilantism and attention-whoring. One would hope a NASA engineer would act like a responsible adult: install HD surveillance cameras, provide video evidence to police.

Please note: I’m not defending thievery. I’m advocating for the rule of law. This shit is not new, it’s standard Youtube fodder.

This may or may not be ethical, legal, or advisable. it is not, however, related to the “attractive nuisance” doctrine you linked to.

What we have in this case is 1) no children, 2) no trespassing, and 3) no condition of the land that children would be unable to appreciate the risk of.

As much as I like the idea of messing with thieves, I gotta agree, this is reeeeeal stupid.

If you watched the video, you’ll hear him say that he took the security camera footage to the police and they told him they weren’t going to follow up on it. He didn’t build his package until *after *the police refused to track the thieves down, probably because the value of the package was under felony limits.

That was the best thing I’ve seen in, hell I don’t know. A long time. My only fear would be that the thieves remembered from which porches they picked up their prizes.

Oh my, that was a depends moment!
Revenge is a dish best served cold

Maybe I missed something, but the only possible injury I see is to one’s feelings at being duped. I thought the glitter was inspired! That stuff never goes away - a lasting reminder.

Why “thieves”? Are you suggesting that they aren’t thieves?

Fuck that. Replace the glitter with dynamite. Think of it as evolution in action.

Thieves looking for vengeance and liability is the only reason not to do lasting harm. My personal belief is thieves pay their quarter and take their chances. Considering the police said it wasn’t worth their time I don’t blame the someone being proactive, especially in such a non-malicious manner.

Plus a thief would have to admit they got glitter in their eye because they stole a package off a porch. So there’s that.

Yup. The fart spray was also inspired… and the addresses from Home Alone.

This is brilliant. Any concern for the package thieves is unwarranted.

I must admit, that while watching the video, I burst out laughing every time I heard the fart spray go off.

“Pssht-pssht-pssht-pssht-pssht.” Pause a bit, then, “Pssht-pssht-pssht-pssht-pssht,” all over again.

One thief: “Oh, man, did you…?”

Hilarious!

Sweet, sweet revenge! This guy should market this invention, in different types of packages.

I think the naysayers are reacting to “bomb” in the title. If they had watched the video, it’s clear that no explosives whatsoever were involved in the creation of the device.