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[Mark Rober] was fed up with packages going missing. He kept receiving notifications that his shipments had been delivered, but when checking his porch he found nothing there. Reviewing the CCTV footage revealed random passers-by sidling up to his porch and stealing his parcels. It was time to strike back. Over six months, [Mark] and his friends painstakingly designed, prototyped and iterated the perfect trap for package thieves, resulting in a small unit disguised as an Apple HomePod. The whole scheme is wonderfully over-engineered and we love it.
The main feature of the device is a spinning cup on the top which contains a large amount of glitter. When activated, it ejects glitter in every directions. You could say it's harmless, as it's just glitter. But then again, glitter has a way of staying with you for the rest of your life — turning up at the least expected times. It certainly leaves an emotional impression.
The trap uses an accelerometer to detect movement, geo-fencing to determine when the package has left the property, glitter and a fart spray to make the thief regret it, and smartphones to capture the thief's reaction for the enjoyment of the hacker.
Also at BBC.
See also: Jersey City PD, Amazon work together to catch package thieves
Jersey City PD nabs 12 this week in porch package sting
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @06:28AM (3 children)
But for placing an enticing bomb on the porch, none of the rest of the chain happens. The bomber will get figuratively slain in a civil trial if an injury occurs.
Like I said, I'd bet everything on the bomber facing liability in this situation (I'll grant that thief will share liability). None of it happens without a bomb and the rest is all just hand-waving what-ifs that may or may not have caused something bad to happen in a comparatively unforeseeable fashion. Bad things happening from a bomb? That's basically a given.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:04AM (2 children)
I better stop ordering live crickets and other feeders from Amazon then. After all, if some porch pirate steals them, opens them while driving, gets more distracted, and crashes, then I'm in hot water since I left them out to be snatched and opened in the car. Better bring in Amazon and USPS as my cross or third-party defendant too, since they sent it to me so it is also their fault it was left on the porch. I'd better also tell the car manufacturers to remove their radios and other car systems that might distract the thief and cause an accident too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @04:07PM (1 child)
If you can't see the difference between a box of crickets which are not intentionally designed to blow up in one's face, and glitter bomb which is, you are a walking liability machine. Save up, you're going to need it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 19 2018, @07:32PM
And if you can't see that both have the same distraction potential, and that the only thing that sets off either is the driver's decision to open them while driving. It is the same reason why we hold people liable for people receiving or sending texts while driving, but not the non-drivers who sent or received those texts, even if they know the person is driving. Under your theory, sending a text to someone who could receive it while driving would make you liable to an accident they cause, as it is reasonably foreseeable that intentionally sending them a signal that could distract them at a key moment could cause the accident.