‘Tis the season for mail thieves to be out in full force. But one package pirate recently got more than they asked for when they happened to steal a box filled with something called Fart Spray and glitter.

NASA-engineer-turned-YouTube-star Mark Rober designed a bait package, called the “glitter bomb trap,” after he fell victim to a porch thief himself in San Francisco.

“If you’ve ever been a situation like this, you just feel violated,” Rober said in a video he posted Monday, detailing how he designed and used the bait package.

Rober, who worked on NASA’s Mars Rover, said he spent about six months designing, planning and testing his device.

The result? A contraption disguised as Apple’s smart speaker, a HomePod, that releases not only a pound of fine glitter and a rancid smell, but captures the entire act on four cameras inside the box.

A number of thieves fell for the trap, with the device inside working exactly as planned each time.

The video shows one man driving up to a home, taking the package, and driving away with it in his passenger’s seat. The next clip shows him getting hit with an explosion of glitter.

“Come on, bro,” he says, before jumping out of his car to shake off the glitter. After getting back in the car and continuing his drive, the Fart Spray does its job.

“What is that smell? Ooooof,” he says, before throwing the package out of his car window into some bushes.

A woman is then seen opening the box inside her home. Once the glitter bomb explodes, the woman is heard shrieking, lifting the box only to be hit with the stinky spray.

Rober said the moral of the prank was simple: just don’t take other people’s stuff.

“Not only is it not cool, but on the plus side, you’ll never find yourself in this situation,” he said.

@ashwadhwani
ashley.wadhwani@bpdigital.ca
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