SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
[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: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday December 19 2018, @01:53PM (1 child)
So your complaint is that they comply with the law?
There are times for civil disobedience, sure...but I wouldn't really consider defending tax evasion to be much of a moral high ground...
(Score: 2) by rcamera on Wednesday December 19 2018, @02:43PM
they were given a choice; start collecting CT sales tax, or provide 3+ years of customer data. they chose the latter. then started collecting CT tax a few months later anyway.
they didn't exclude clothing from their list (which is often exempt from sales tax in the state), and they don't know where the product is being used, which could also exclude sales tax. they DID include at least 1 item in their rat-out list (for me) that was delivered to a NY address - which would be a NY sales tax issue, not CT.
/* no comment */