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posted by takyon on Sunday December 23 2018, @09:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the viral-infection dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Creator of viral glitter bomb video admits parts of it were staged

This week, it seemed the entire Internet rejoiced after a former NASA engineer created a custom glitter bomb designed to strike back against package thieves. His impressive invention resulted in a hilarious video of would-be criminals being coated in glitter and having their nostrils assaulted with a fart spray. But it seems the clip, which racked up more than 42 million views in just a few days, was a little too good to be true -- its creator admits parts of it were staged, seemingly without his knowledge.

Mark Rober cut around 90 seconds from the video and reuploaded it to remove a segment in which a friend of a friend borrowed the device. As it turns out, that person recruited their own friends to pose as victims. Rober apologized for the ruse.

"Ultimately, I am responsible for the content that goes on my channel and I should have done more here," he wrote in an apology tweet. "I can vouch that the reactions were genuine when the package was taken from my house."

Previously: Hacker Makes a Flawless Booby Trap, Strikes Back Against Package Thieves


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Sunday December 23 2018, @06:31PM (6 children)

    by sjames (2882) on Sunday December 23 2018, @06:31PM (#777875) Journal

    Read it again! SOME of it was staged, a fact not known by the person who put the video up. He's now removed those bits in the spirit of truth.

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 23 2018, @08:07PM (5 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday December 23 2018, @08:07PM (#777885) Homepage

    I'm sure the staging was deliberate: Package theft is a HUGE problem in my neighborhood and I see the security cam videos my neighbors post -- and guess what the package thieves all have in common? Guess what physical trait is easy to identify consistently even in grainy security cam footage?

    While I will leave it up to you to figure out the answer, it would make sense that our hipster cocksucker (who, if he wasn't such a pussy, would have rigged his contraption with pepper-spray or sodium hydroxide rather than fucking fart spray) and his SJW friends wouldn't want to post a video showing everybody the sad truth regarding who really steals those packages.

    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @09:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @09:49PM (#777916)

      the sad truth regarding who really steals those packages

      I'm going out on a limb here but I'm going to guess "thieves" might be the word you're looking for. Anything else would be stupid.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:25PM

      by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:25PM (#777927) Journal

      Guess what physical trait is easy to identify consistently even in grainy security cam footage?

      A human shape.

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:48PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 23 2018, @10:48PM (#777936)

      Rhymes with "Barack Obama"?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @06:50AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 24 2018, @06:50AM (#778045)

      They are black?

      In a recent news article it showed a still of a repeat parcel thief. A white woman.

      Pictures please.