
Video of Glitter Bomb for Package Thieves Exposed as Partial Fake - mbrubeck
https://gizmodo.com/viral-video-of-glitter-bomb-for-package-thieves-exposed-1831254130
======
nkurz
Rober's full statement is here:

\--

Note about 2 missing the reactions in the video- I was presented with
information that caused me to doubt the veracity of 2 of the 5 reactions in
the video. These were reactions that were captured during a two week period
while the device was at house 2 hours away from where I live. I put a feeler
out for people willing to put a package on their porch and this person (who is
a friend of a friend) volunteered to help.

To compensate them for their time and willingness to risk putting a package on
their porch I offered financial compensation for any successful recoveries of
the package. It appears (and I've since confirmed) in these two cases, the
“thieves" were actually acquaintances of the person helping me. From the
footage I received from the phones which intentionally only record at specific
times, this wasn’t clear to me. I have since removed those reactions from the
original video (originally 6:26-7:59).

I’m really sorry about this. Ultimately, I am responsible for the content that
goes on my channel and I should have done more here. I can vouch for that the
reactions were genuine when the package was taken from my house. Having said
that, I know my credibly is sort of shot but I encourage you to look at the
types of videos I’ve been making for the past 7 years. This is my first ever
video with some kind of “prank" and like I mentioned in the video it’s pretty
removed from my comfort zone and I should have done more.

I’m especially gutted because so much thought, time, money and effort went
into building the device and I hope this doesn’t just taint the entire effort
as “fake". It genuinely works (like all the other things I’ve built on my
channel) and we’ve made all the code and build info public. Again, I’m sorry
for putting something up on my channel that was misleading. That is totally on
me and I will take all necessary steps to make sure it won’t happen again.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-
hwuo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxhDk-hwuo)

\--

(I added the paragraph breaks for better readability; click on "See More" of
the description for the original)

~~~
eps
I call BS.

The device had GPS tracker and it was used just few times, so chances of him
NOT reviewing theif's route after each incident are zero. So he surely knew
that the thief lived across the street.

~~~
sethammons
and? Neighbors can legit steal too.

~~~
Buge
According to the imgur album, one time the package was opened by his next door
neighbor. A different time it was opened in his own house.

------
hn_throwaway_99
Wow, not gonna lie, pretty impressed by the internet sleuths who tracked
things down in the video:
[https://m.imgur.com/a/oxjd8lU](https://m.imgur.com/a/oxjd8lU) .

Also pretty impressed people have that much time on their hands (as I say
posting some random comment into the ether).

~~~
inetknght
Impressed is the nice way to put it.

Literally doxxing people is very scary.

~~~
thisacctforreal
They redacted the PII, and I wouldn't call this doxxing to begin with.

~~~
stcredzero
Doxxing the guilty is still doxxing. Doxxing, then taking the information down
is still doxxing. Until there is a trial, people still have their civil
rights. Private individuals and the legislative and executive parts of our
government have no business taking away people's civil rights. That's what the
Civil Rights movement was about in the first place!

Taking away someone's civil rights through a trial by social media is even
worse than any legacy "trial by media."

~~~
striking
There are civil rights being taken away here?

Obviously it's not pleasant to have your public information shared like this,
and I'm not saying that it should have happened, I just don't understand what
you're trying to say.

------
Jerry2
I assumed he built the device but it turns out this guy actually engineered
the device for Mark:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMxOmUcfOI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMxOmUcfOI)

~~~
cf498
Holy crap that fan at
[https://youtu.be/IpMxOmUcfOI?t=175](https://youtu.be/IpMxOmUcfOI?t=175)

Btw absolutely amazing project. Thanks for posting the link

~~~
gpm
Does anyone know anything about what sort of fan that is? Seems like it could
be pretty interesting to play around with.

~~~
sgentle
Looks like a standard brushless case fan – most of the PC/ATX ones are 12v and
prioritise low noise over power, but I have a few I pulled out of laser
printers that are 24v, about palm-sized, and put out silly volumes of air.

------
lucisferre
Well if you believe his explanation then they were still thieves, technically.

He offered to pay people who kept the package on their porch if the package
was taken. They then asked their friends to take it so they would get paid.

~~~
polartx
I _want_ to believe, buuut...It would make more sense to financially
incentivize people to set off a glitter/stink bomb in their house or car.

And then there's the other thing about him blurring out the 'thieves' faces, a
lot of folks wondered why he would take extra time to do that? Package thieves
deserve to be arrested, but the police won't do anything, so instead I'll
annoy them with glitter and safeguard their anonymity? Fishy. Not fishy when
its people that haven't done anything wrong that are helping you make a video
and you don't want them being doxxed/witchhunted.

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
> It would make more sense to financially incentivize people to set off a
> glitter/stink bomb in their house or car.

No, it wouldn't make sense for at least two reasons: After engineering
something for 6 months you really really really want to see if it works in the
wild. Rober doesn't have much to gain from youtube stardom compared to other
things he could possibly do.

Edit: Also, a very careful engineer, as most are, would engineer a careful
hoax. Also, involving money and human interest without considering the
possibilities is sometimes a stereotypical engineering mistake.

~~~
polartx
After engineering something for 6 months you really really [don't want to lose
that thing you spent 6 months on because there are still many factors beyond
your control]. Rober doesn't have much to gain from youtube stardom [except of
course--money, and notoriety]

~~~
0xdeadbeefbabe
So I didn't convince you?

------
sccxy
Same guy made video "FLYING PHONE SCAM EXPOSED (so I built a REAL one)"[1],
where he cried that someone made fake video and made money from amazon
referrals.

At the same time, this fake glitter dude makes a lot of money from his fake
video. Nice.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEZCxxKp0hM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEZCxxKp0hM)

~~~
hudibras
This video was the first time I heard of Mark Rober, and it was a pretty mean
hatchet job towards that Indian kid who was obviously just joking around. Dr.
Disillusion had a much more respectfully takedown of the same video where he
gave props to the kid and encouraged him to keep at it.

Rober takes the "I'm an engineer, so I know what I'm talking about" shtick too
far; there's probably 10,000 more-talented engineers in Boeing's SPEEA local
alone.

~~~
verroq
Surely you mean Captain Disillusion.

~~~
hudibras
oops...

------
root_axis
Funny. In the original thread there were quite a few people thoroughly
convinced that there was no way this could possibly be staged because come on,
why would he do that? After all, he is a famous dude and he worked for NASA!
He would never stage a reaction video for views, how would that look?

[https://i.imgur.com/8tOcpZS.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/8tOcpZS.jpg)

~~~
spuz
That logic still holds if you believe his explanation. He didn't know the
thieves were fake either. He didn't actually deceive anyone because he was as
in the dark as we were.

~~~
root_axis
I think he's lying and making up excuses because he got caught. He also
misrepresented his role in the creation of the device (i.e. he didn't create
it, someone else did, you can view their youtube channel here
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMxOmUcfOI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpMxOmUcfOI)).
IMO there is no reason to trust anything that guy says.

------
etrautmann
I think the entertainment value of this video for me doesn’t rely on it being
genuine. It’s creative, well engineered, and hilariously executed even if the
responses are staged. I’m surprised, but it doesn’t ruin it for me.

~~~
hackinthebochs
I couldn't care any less whether its genuine or not. I've always been baffled
at the internet's obsession with outing "fake" content. It's like people think
attention is sacrosanct and must ensure that any attention someone gets is
"just" according to their personal criteria. It points to our pathological
obsession with fame and status.

~~~
Kylekramer
Why is debunking people faking stuff indicative of a pathological obsession
with fame and status? Seems more like the fakers in the first place would be
guilty of obsessing over fame and status.

~~~
hackinthebochs
The effort to debunk rates poorly on effort vs reward, outside of an unhealthy
value placed on attention/status. But making fake content for attention can
have a reasonable expected payoff.

~~~
callalex
Not everyone measures the value of their time spent by expected dollar
returns.

~~~
speedplane
It's okay to value your time by expected returns, as long as you consider any
additional harm you cause to others. If you make $100 and others you interact
with also make $5 from your efforts, that's okay. If you make $100 and others
you interact with lose $200, then that's probably bad.

------
thinkingemote
I recall several posts on this forum by users explicitly denying the
possibility of it being fake, when the video was first posted.

I hope some of our fellow HN users who were so adamant will reflect on their
comments, and it would be nice if they would comment on how they were thinking
and feeling now.

~~~
decebalus1
Memorable quotes:

'I doubt Mark would be staging things. He works for Nasa and worked on some
big projects there and is a pretty smart guy. I can't see him being the kind
of person looking to just make some viral fake video. But up to you to make
that call if you want to think that. This is one case where I doubt it's
staged.'

'Given who made the video, I'd give it about a 0% probably of being staged.
That's not Mark's gig.'

'Well one, he's not a prank channel. He's a serious professional that even
showed video of people stealing his package that started the whole idea. He
then went as far as to machine parts, have a custom pcb manufactured etc. Then
he contaminated cars and residences with glitter, yeah good luck talking
random friends to let you bomb their cars and houses with glitter.

I mean, the dude worked for JPL for almost a decade and has his work on Mars,
he already gets tons of views and has a history of deep-diving projects. He's
also a tv host. He's also a former TED speaker.

Guy has better things to do than stage videos for YouTube.'

If I'm not mistaken, this would be a good example of the halo effect.

~~~
balfirevic
From what I understand, he still maintains that he hasn't staged anything and
was duped by his friends. If that is true the text you quoted still stands.

------
ggggtez
The racial aspect of paying your black friends to pretend to be thieves is
really troubling here.

The whole thing stinks.

~~~
utopcell
Someone paid them ?!

~~~
64738
That wasn't the way I read it. He said the "thieves" were acquaintances of the
friends he paid. He likely doesn't even know the acquaintances.

~~~
ggggtez
Some of the questions are overt: Did the friends chose the actors who looked
and sounded more like a "thief" (aka minority stereotype)?

Some are less overt: Was he fooled by the actors because of his own
preconceptions about what a thief looks and sounds like? He had the full GPS
tracking and footage, after all. Did he ignore evidence that might have clued
him in that it wasn't real, because of those biases?

By setting it up so they get paid if an only if it gets stolen, did he
unintentionally incentivise his friends to fake the footage that matched his
own preconceptions of what a real thief looks like?

After all, we know he was stolen from multiple times. We know he has footage,
and knows what they look like. Was he convinced because of his preconceptions?

That's what we are talking about here. Once it's revealed it's fake, we
suddenly are approached by a whole tangle of messy racial bias in how this
made it from conception to production to consumption.

------
heyjudy
It's the first thing I thought: dude isn't going to wait for thieves and
chance recovery for $1800 of phones, instead he's going to fake it like a
reality show with friends / hired actors. He should've disclosed the fact
because that would show integrity. He comes off like a smarmy guy that you
can't trust, so it's not a huge suprise either.

~~~
goldenkey
The "I worked for NASA" shpeil is so sweaty when you find out that he didn't
even build the device. (Someone in this thread posted the channel of the
contracted builder.)

------
utopcell
So what ? This does not make the work any less impressive. There is zero doubt
in my mind that this was a genuine effort. Mark, if you're reading this:
Awesome hack, keep them coming!

~~~
megablast
Ok, how about the fact that someone else made the device for him? So what did
he do, have an idea, and leave it on his porch.

~~~
spuz
The idea and the execution of it are why people enjoyed the video. He linked
to a video by the guy that helped him build it that goes through some of the
engineering of the device for those that are interested. He never took credit
for doing the entire thing by himself.

------
pavel_lishin
I'm still very surprised that any of this is true. This definitely seems like
a booby-trap device situation to me, and I wouldn't risk leaving it out in
front of my house.

~~~
yourapostasy
Hopefully covered by the same laws that protect banks that use dye packs.
Porch bandits are entering private property that is not theirs and not by
invitation, then stealing private property.

Instead of pot smoking convictions, I'd rather see more prison time for porch
bandits caught by dye pack-like bait packages.

~~~
pavel_lishin
I'm not shedding tears for people who break their legs trying to jump a fence
into someone's backyard so they can steal their TV, but the laws are what they
are.

I can't exactly put down Home Alone style traps in my house; I'm not sure why
this is any different.

~~~
jrockway
I think the difference is degree of injury. Having glitter in your car is a
lot different than having a bullet through your face, which is where the booby
trap case law comes from.

~~~
tjoff
Yes, but... What if the passenger opened the package while the car was being
driven, and the commotion with the glitter and fart bomb (and perhaps a
exaggerated response by the passenger) might contribute to an accident.

Maybe the smell and the shame might make the thief stressed and make bad
decisions in traffic.

Both scenarios might seem silly, but I think they are in quite a different
legal light when there is intent to disrupt.

~~~
craftyguy
They don't seem silly, they are silly.

~~~
tjoff
Many accidents are.

------
thosakwe
I didn’t watch the video, but with a title like that, I thought it was fake.
Not in a “haha I’m so smart, I knew it was fake!” way, but an “If this were
real, he’d probably be using the video in court rather than on YouTube,
besides everyone expects YouTube content to be staged” way.

Guess I was wrong...?

~~~
mcast
I was more concerned that someone who stole this package from his doorstep
would be injured or harmed and sue/threaten the property owner.

~~~
saagarjha
Can you sue someone if you steal something from them and it hurts you?

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Can you sue? Sure. Can you _win_? Maybe. It might depend on how bad the damage
is.

------
mcv
What I'd like to know is what kind of person would volunteer to have their car
or home covered in fine glitter that's impossible to remove. No idea how
disgusting the fart gas is.

So even if Rober was paying people for recovery, I'd expect he'd have to pay
them quite a bit more to voluntarily undergo the treatment of his boobytrap.

~~~
talltimtom
Seems weird that you expect him to pay more when you Donny know how much he
payed in the first place...

~~~
mcv
You don't think having to clean up fine glitter everywhere would increase the
effort and therefore the cost of participating in this?

------
manigandham
If a package was opened inside his friend/neighbors own house, how did he not
recognize that?

------
rasz
>Rober deleted about a minute and a half from his original YouTube video
yesterday, and reuploaded it—something YouTube allows you to do without
sacrificing the number of hits a user has accumulated

wait, what? you can edit YT videos without changing video ID? When did that
happen?

------
mudil
I commend him for doing this. People are up in arms about everything: this
story plus numerous stories how glitter is bad for the environment. But he
created a genuine video, complicated device, put time, effort, and best
intentions without a hint of impropriety. People need to relax and stop
looking for things to criticize in this case.

We have an ongoing biggest European journalism scandal in decades at Der
Spiegel, and you barely hear about this in the media. Where are our
priorities?

[https://www.politico.eu/article/der-spiegels-first-class-
fak...](https://www.politico.eu/article/der-spiegels-first-class-faker/)

[https://spectator.us/der-spiegel-small-town/](https://spectator.us/der-
spiegel-small-town/)

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-der-spiegel-says-
repor...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-der-spiegel-says-reporter-
made-up-facts-11545334314)

~~~
seiferteric
Yes I assumed some or all of it was fake, its really no big deal, who cares?
He is on youtube trying to monetize his video, he probably wouldn't want to
leave it to chance. I am just surprised he found people willing to glitter
bomb their own cars! It's no different than most "reality" tv shows.

~~~
stcredzero
_Yes I assumed some or all of it was fake, its really no big deal, who cares?_

This is the level of cynicism our society has sunk to? I grew up in a time and
place where everybody tried their hardest to tell the truth, always. Years
later, I mentioned this idea to my girlfriend at the time's mom, and she
laughed out loud. She grew up in a community where everyone lied all the time.

This is the difference between a society that works, and a society that's
pathological.

I'm more shocked by such cynical reactions than by the circumstance reported.

~~~
user2426679
I like how your parent comment has positive karma for saying that "it's fake;
who cares," but I'm downvoted into negative for saying "it's fake; I care" :
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735972](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735972)

~~~
spuz
You were downvoted for saying it was an obvious fake while giving no
justification for your conclusion.

------
ourmandave
Not as fabulous as we were first led to believe?

------
dynjo
Who cares if it was fake, it was awesome and it was better entertainment than
99.99% of the crap on the internet.

Make more stuff NASA dude!!

------
DonHopkins
You mean TacoCopter isn't real, either? ;(

[http://tacocopter.com/](http://tacocopter.com/)

------
potatoman2
They really have to get in a dig at the president in every article don't they?
Even completely unrelated ones about glitter bomb traps.

------
0xdeadbeefbabe
So? Does the glitter not go everywhere?

> It’s still an impressive invention, and if you believe Rober, most of the
> video is still legit. But Rober understands why people may not trust him
> anymore.

He understands incorrectly then. The point of the video was engineering, and
not social science.

~~~
freyir
Well, he didn’t even do the engineering so... it’s just entertainment.

------
user2426679
This was pretty obvious imo, based on a cursory viewing of the original video
when it came out. I immediately blocked the dude's Twitter account as I only
use it for following fintwits. People wanted to believe it was true for
whatever reason; just take a step back, and you'll see how obviously staged
the whole thing was. Don't feed the troll.

