201–210 of 940 posts
The video is well worth your time. The device works very well, and the fart spray has a purpose, in that it encourages the thief to ditch the package as soon as possible, enabling him to recover and reload it.
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> package theft isn't a significant enough problem This guy had his package stolen many times in a short space of time. Seems like the problem is pretty bad?
A park ranger named Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning six times in eight years. Clearly this is a major problem! Roughly one third of Americans have ever had a package stolen. ( https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/11/20/package-... ) It’s not that big a deal. For people who want to avoid taking chances with it, there are various options to avoid it. Not that they should have to, but there are many bigger…
What are people's thoughts on if this is staged? Considering the views / subscriptions are the main motivation here, it might justify the expenses poured into this project – that is, it would be quite a waste if all that effort went into the build just to have no one actually take it off the porch. If actors were used, it would explain the lack of police involvement (it's easy to say, "police weren't interested" ). A…
In the Netherlands, when I order a package and no one's at home when it's delivered, it either gets delivered to my neighbors or to the post office, with a note of where to pick it up. It's never left at my door AFAIK. How is this not an option in the US?
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They couldn't do anything with the footage of them taking it from the front porch. But with close up footage of their face and GPS coordinates of some of their houses it seems like a different story.
I’m not trying to be cynical “at you” but my time with police has taught me they are there to document crime always and stop it directly almost never. TV and Movies mislead.
Petty thieves and burglars are pretty low priority for US cops, as long as it's poor people stealing from poor people. Thus you can have an entire class of people that can routinely steal anything they come across that isn't nailed down, yet never get caught. Because no one tries to catch them. And then they get jobs that give them access to things that are only lightly nailed down, because they have no criminal records.
The cops aren't really there to protect you or your property. They will if it's convenient, but if you need real protection, you'll have to pay someone and have a contract in place. Or just do what most people do: get insurance with a reasonable deductible and keep all your stuff locked up or nailed down.
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Watch the video. The phones are hidden, and the fart spray is designed to make the thief get rid of the package as quickly as possible rather than taking it apart to see what might be inside.
Even so, wouldn't it be better to use 4 cheap cameras instead of 4 expensive smartphones?
seriously, pick up x4 $30 prepaid phones from walmart and they'll do the job perfectly
Anyone else found it unsatisfactory that there was nothing about forwarding the footage of the thieves to the police?
Yeah. “Hello officer, I made a booby trapped package and I...” gets tased “argh no you don’t under- “ is handed off to the secret service I doubt the cops would look kindly on what is at best (funny) vigilante justice, at worse a violation of some federal law.
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The article mentions that he built this in the first place because the police told him that there was nothing they could do even with footage
They couldn't do anything with the footage of them taking it from the front porch. But with close up footage of their face and GPS coordinates of some of their houses it seems like a different story.
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Those are very much not cheapest unless he had them lying around. There are ready made cheap boards with identical functionality to a cellphone, few dollars a pop. And yes, they run Android. That said, this way he can claim it had something valuable inside in case it is still taken.
> made cheap boards with identical functionality to a cellphone, few dollars a pop. And yes, they run Android. With a camera, battery and 3G modem? Got any links?
One phone (or one phone’s SD card) may not have had the IO bandwidth to receive video from four cameras at once, though.
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Yeah. “Hello officer, I made a booby trapped package and I...” gets tased “argh no you don’t under- “ is handed off to the secret service I doubt the cops would look kindly on what is at best (funny) vigilante justice, at worse a violation of some federal law.
The package was on his porch, not in his mailbox, and it has a fake UPS label. Nothing federal about it--definitely nothing involving the secret service. The only way he might get charged with something is if the glitter bomb manages to injure someone (and even then it wouldn't be a federal crime).
The more I think about this, you could probably make a much safer solution for less than a few dollars if you forego the video capture. Is there a safe non-toxic stinky oil? All you would need is a box that once opened, is very difficult to put back together, that holds stinky oil.
I would probably also put wording on the package that says, "By taking or opening this package, you consent to recording and agree to manage the discharge of a very stinky oil. The opener of the packages assumes all responsibility and liability for any damage that results from touching this package".