Suzanne Humphries
Former NASA engineer Mark Rober is back at it again with another creative glitter bomb video—this time with the exploding Glitter Bomb 4.0. The justice-delivering package is a fun improvement on last year’s version and packs a few new surprises.
While there are a variety of other ways to protect your deliveries from porch pirates, Rober’s punishing packages are far more entertaining. And this year, he hides his sweet revenge inside an oh-so-tempting Apple HomePod speaker box.
This year’s bait features a pneumatic system that punches the lid off the box once triggered so it’s out of the way for the rest of the surprises. From there, Rober added in a car horn sound and a clever—but nasty—tri-phase glitter dispenser that spaces out three separate deliveries of ultra-fine glitter. And as usual, the box features four phones—to record the thieves in action and send said footage to the cloud—a dedicated onboard microphone, and the iconic skunk fart spray (aka, the real punishment).
The packages stay charged by sitting atop a doormat charger Rober built, to ensure they were at full battery once they were (inevitably) stolen. To account for nighttime package thefts, he also built a moveable that slides over the mat, where the package sits, engulfing it and hiding it from view; then, when it’s nice and bright the next morning, the process reverses, revealing the tantalizing box once again. Once the package is moved from the charging mat, a text message is sent to Mark, alerting him and toggling on the GPS
Rober cited that over two million packages are stolen from porches every year; he also notes that, in the past, the police have been reticent to step in and help despite the video evidence provided and that he wants to keep making these videos until justice is finally obtained.
Will porch pirates ever learn? Probably not, but at least word of these videos is spreading (just like the glitter in these clever boxes).
