We sometimes see videos about people tricking or trapping individuals who are stealing parcels from front porches. A man who is a former NASA engineer recently spent six months building a glitter ball to do that very thing.

The device was hidden inside of an Apple Homepod box and it used a circuit board, four smartphones, and 1 pound of glitter to make it work.

The YouTuber, Mark Rober saw the thieves who had originally stolen the package on his home security camera.

Police said they were not able to investigate the case so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

The elaborate bomb was hidden inside of the package and activated when it was opened by the thieves. Phone cameras and microphones would record what took place.

An accelerometer device was used for motion detection. When the partial was lifted, the device would check the GPS signal to see if it had been removed from the area.

If the package was removed, a signal would be sent to activate the phones and begin recording. There was glitter inside of a cup that spun around with the motor included inside. The glitter would be released when the box was opened.

In addition to the glitter, a tube of fart spray was engineered into the package to release every 30 seconds.

Mr. Rober left the package on his front porch with a label saying it was sent by ‘Kevin McAllister’, the boy that was played by Macaulay Culkin and Home Alone.

There were a number of occasions when the box was stolen and it was reset to capture new footage every time. Each time, the package was abandoned once it was triggered but they had already been doused in glitter.

The YouTube video has been viewed more than 6 million times already. He said: “If anyone was going to make a revenge bait package and over-engineer the crap out of it, it was going to be me.”

Amazon announced last week that it is now working with New Jersey police to fight parcel theft crime.

Dummy boxes are being planted by police officers that include GPS trackers. They are also using hidden doorbell cameras outside homes in areas that have reported problems with parcel theft.

It only took three minutes for one of the parcels to be stolen.

Source: BBC