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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

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" ). An obvious consequence of it being a production without disclosure is the copycats that this will spawn. Edit: just to add a bit more food-for-thought in response to comments such as, "why do that to your own car?" or "why get sprayed with fart spray": what makes you believe it's their own car (could be a beater picked up for a few hundred dollars) or that the fart spray actually smells?

astrodust 8y ago
You couldn't pay me enough to be an "actor" who had their house or car glitterbombed.
- ionforce 8y ago
  And get fart sprayed on.
  - palotasb 8y ago
    You're assuming that if it's fake, the spray is still real.
    - jackhack 8y ago
      ace body spray -- still can't pay me enough.
  - southerndrift 8y ago
    Which doesn't happen at all incidents. E.g. the last thief who opens the package in his house doesn't complain about a smell at all. So chances are that this is staged.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
Fogest 8y ago
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.
kaivi 8y ago
I've had the same thought when I first saw it. Some suspicious things: thieves talking to themselves, that lady throwing the box into her own garbage bin, zero attempt at disassembly or closer inspection of the box, no police involved. Also GPS is just not that good for locating anything of that size in given circumstances, and it would not have worked in the parking garage. Too many things could have gone wrong here, but they did not. The design is subpar in my opinion, for somebody who worked on a Mars rover. Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously?
- dageshi 8y ago
  > Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously? Why wouldn't you use this? Seems like if you want to push video data over the cell phone network then using some cheapo android phones with data sims is by far and away the simplest and most robust solution? Anything you build yourself to do that job is gonna be way more prone to error?
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  A lot of people talk to themselves. Most small-time thieves are not known for incredible intelligence. If you look close enough to realize it has cameras, you might realize you are on video and should get rid of it quickly. Consumer products are far more reliable than rolling your own solution nine times out of ten. Had he failed to recover the device, the video still would've been pretty cool. If it's traceable, throwing it in your own trash isn't much worse than throwing it elsewhere, since it already has the coordinates of your house anyways. GPS works fine on small packages and a lot of businesses/products exist specifically to take advantage of this. Also note that as full-featured smartphones, he's likely got the full power of Google Location Services in play, which can identify what floor of a building (or parking garage) you're on, and of course, even if it failed to get signal in the parking garage would surely show location up to the parking garage. Inside a parking garage, a bright white box is not hard to find. Also, he has four GPS devices facing different directions, so he's got a lot of backup for failure here.
- aqme28 8y ago
  >Too many things could have gone wrong here, but they did not. The design is subpar in my opinion, for somebody who worked on a Mars rover. Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously? What would you propose? The best design is often the easiest/cheapest one, and this looks like pretty simple.
tylerl 8y ago
Given who made the video, I'd give it about a 0% probably of being staged. That's not Mark's gig.
- hjek 8y ago
  > That's not Mark's gig. Apparently it is. https://gizmodo.com/viral-video-of-glitter-bomb-for-package-thieves-exposed-1831254130 https://gizmodo.com/viral-video-of-glitter-bomb-for-package-...
Firebrand 8y ago
Mark reportedly lives in California, a two-party state. Wouldn’t he be running afoul of wiretapping laws, regardless if he’s recording criminals?
- francislavoie 8y ago
  Sure, but do you really think the criminals will present him with a lawsuit... when they literally stole from him?
  - EGreg 8y ago
    What if the DA does?
  - TallGuyShort 8y ago
    Dumber lawsuits than that have won.
- ectospheno 8y ago
  You are allowed to record crimes in progress in two party states.
- otterley 8y ago
  Wiretapping is the recording of a telephone conversation (or modern equivalent). If it’s not a telephone conversation, it’s not subject to the law’s consent requirements.
- gnopgnip 8y ago
  This all happened in a suburb of Chicago
- LinuxBender 8y ago
  How does Amazon and Google get away with it? When you put their listening devices in your home, do you sign a legally binding contract? Honest question, I've never bought one. If a contract is sufficient, does it have to be signed in writing or witnessed? If not, then could he have a sign at his door stating that acquiring the package provides consent to monitoring? Is there a lawyer here that could answer those questions, pro bono? [Edit] Maybe it would be sufficient to put wording on the box that basically says, "by touching or taking this packages.... yada yada..."
t0mbstone 8y ago
I seriously doubt that andy sane person would glitter and stink bomb their own car.
- slig 8y ago
  The stink thing could be fake (we can't tell from the video only) and the glitter on a car, well, maybe there are desperate people out there that will gladly take US X,000 for the trouble. I don't think the video is fake, though.
- duiker101 8y ago
  I'm pretty sure I've seen people doing dumber things for little money. That said, I don't think it's staged.
VectorLock 8y ago
It would be funny if this spawned a bunch of copy cats which then drives down the incidents of package theft because thiefs are paranoid of getting prank packages. I bet somebody will soon start selling this as a product. And people will just send them to their friends instead of targeting package thiefs. "Pranked you bro!" Then there will be a bunch of backlash.
- dvtrn 8y ago
  >And people will just send them to their friends instead of targeting package thiefs. "Pranked you bro!" No need to wait for that, it's already a thing: https://www.ruindays.com/ https://www.ruindays.com/ Some have sent far...erm...shittier things in the mail: http://time.com/3634443/cards-against-humanity-poop-black-friday/ http://time.com/3634443/cards-against-humanity-poop-black-fr...
  - VectorLock 8y ago
    No camera or motorized glitter-whipper on this though. Being able to see your victim's face and reaction is what really makes it.
- rapind 8y ago
  Just in time for me to sell my GlitterBombDetector TM.
modzu 8y ago
it would be cool to see the source for the project, like what triggered the cloud uploads or how the gps data was mapped
nothrabannosir 8y ago
If this was staged, this guy is a fantastic actor. The shot of him “being out of his comfort zone” when retrieving the box, in particular, would have my sincere respect if it were not genuine. That is professional grade acting. Something you generally don’t find in YouTube click bait fakes.
- paavoova 8y ago
  That's exactly what made me think it's staged. Despite stating contrary, he seemed incredibly eager to drive to an unknown location, and hop out of his car without scouting the direct vicinity. How could he have known the thief wasn't still hanging around? Someone willing to steal might also be willing to mug and/or physically retaliate against the person who just glitter bombed them coming to pick up their package.
tomcam 8y ago
> Considering the views / subscriptions are the main motivation here Where is that stated?
98codes 8y ago
The lack of police response is par for the course in a number of cities these days.
- bufferoverflow 8y ago
  Which makes no sense. You pretty much have a criminal case ready, there's video evidence. They will likely plead guilty without going to trial.
  - jboy55 8y ago
    What's the crime? Stealing something that is less than $1000? They could have stolen that from the front of a store and if they weren't detained by a store cop, the police won't do anything typically. If they plead guilty, they probably would just get a small fine, not worth the time of a detective to make the case.
    - axaxs 8y ago
      Serious question then... what's the deterrent? Sounds like a person could spend all day looking for packages, resell the contents, at the risk of just paying a small fee if one happens to prosecute...
      - jboy55 8y ago
        Welcome to the reality. Typically, the criminals are caught with lots of items, and there's theft and possession of stolen property. Or if they are stopped, they are also carrying drugs and they'll get charged with that. Edit: Also, its not so easy to sell a bunch of random things for the cash. For every iphone that might get you a 100 or so in one transaction, there's a bunch of random things that you might get you $20 if you spend a day trying sell them.
    - bufferoverflow 8y ago
      > What's the crime? That's a ridiculous question. It's theft. Which is illegal. > If they plead guilty, they probably would just get a small fine 1) That's only if it's their first time. 2) It reduces future crime. With the current attitude (like yours) more criminals are incentivized to steal packages.
dylan604 8y ago
>it's easy to say, "police weren't interested" I’ve had my house robbed, and had evidence from the bank when the robbers tried to use the checkbook to send money through Western Union. They had photos, state issued identification, address, etc of the people collecting the payments. The assigned detective would not read an email or respond to voice mails. The detective said he was too busy to read emails. Not sure that’s the piece of evidence to hang my hat on that this might be a hoax.
- rebbie 8y ago
  You can try to press charges yourself. The police really don't want to help in such cases but I've found that once they know you are serious and have the proper evidence/witnesses they will at least steer you in the right direction.
  - jboy55 8y ago
    You can't press charges yourself. You can go directly to the DA with your evidence and hope they press charges, but there is no role for you as a citizen to instigate a criminal preceding. https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2015/12/pressing-charges-what-does-it-mean-and-who-does-it.html https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2015/12/pressing-charges-w... You could sue them in court.
    - dylan604 8y ago
      Getting robbed is just the opening salvo in getting fleeced. The second round is the insurance company. Yes, I know insurance fraud exists, so one way the insurance companies "protect" themselves is to issue a check for a fraction of the value of the items stolen. They know most people will not replace the stolen items. If you do replace the items, then you have to re-submit your claim with the receipt to show it was actually replaced. They will then decide if they want to reimburse the difference from the original payout. You're also left pretty defeated with the lack of response from the police, then you have the beat down with the insurance company. Asking the individuals to go after a civil suit is just too much. Had I known about it, I might have done it. The police nor the insurance ever suggested this was possible. Even still, what are the odds of actually receiving any payment from a civil suit win?
mschaef 8y ago
I'd be honestly be concerned about retaliation. The people that got hit with the glitter bomb can probably trace back where they found it, and have already demonstrated a lack of strict attention to the law. > it's their own car (could be a beater picked up for a few hundred dollars) At least one of them was a fairly nice looking Lexus.
stupidbird 8y ago
Feels real to me generally — actors are usually easy to spot, and these would be surprisingly good actors. The police are not going to do anything in my experience. I literally caught someone in the act of stealing a package and the police specifically told me to do nothing and file a report. I submitted clear video of a face and apparently this was a known thief to others in the neighborhood, so I even gave them the person's name. They're still stealing packages 6 months later. The police tell me there are warrants pending.
mikestew 8y ago
(it's easy to say, "police weren't interested" ) It's easy to say, because after a while it kind of just rolls off the tongue. If there's no blood, my experience says police aren't interested. And in some jurisdictions, it better be a lot of blood.
- ams6110 8y ago
  Yeah it really depends on where petty theft falls in the spectrum of criminal activity in that area. In a quiet small town it might get a detective assigned. In a lower-class urban neighborhood, well the cops have bigger fish to fry.
anewguy9000 8y ago
most people still seem to think of youtube as home movies. they dont understand its ursurped traditional "television", and all the strings attached to that (its media -- it's not reality! it's a "reality show") there are many comments here that read something like, "mark wouldn't do a fake video..." as if they know mark personally. it's like debating if tom cruise really shoots people in mission impossible. you can debate this if you want, maybe mark's followers really do "know" what, how, and why he posts to youtube. but please never stop 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 and questioning
ryanmercer 8y ago
>What are people's thoughts on if this is staged? 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.
- root_axis 8y ago
  Nothing you've listed here precludes fakery. > good luck talking random friends to let you bomb their cars and houses with glitter. Right. Typically you pay an actor to do fake things that a real person would not be on board with.
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    >Nothing you've listed here precludes fakery. You think he can get a decent engineering job, especially for a government agency, in the future with a viral public hoax on his record? Yeah, probably not and YouTube isn't going to rake in money forever, not that he uploads often enough to be anywhere near a top earner anyway.
    - root_axis 8y ago
      > You think he can get a decent engineering job, especially for a government agency, in the future with a viral public hoax on his record? Who cares? Those are arbitrary rationalizations that didn't necessarily factor into the creator's reasoning; you're simply projecting post facto reasoning that supports your preconceived conclusions. People who fall for scams and fakes use this same flawed reasoning all the time: "would he really lie about this? It can't possibly be worth it, I have considered all possibilities and have perfect information, there is no way that someone would do something that is obviously a bad choice from my perspective"...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mr_tristan 8y ago
Unfortunately, it's becoming a pretty common problem. Here in Portland, the police is understaffed, largely because the hiring process is insane. (It can take a full year to complete the background check - so onboarding new officers is a slow process.) Thus, they prioritize responding to violence or possible major damage - given the high number of homeless addicts on Portland streets, it's unfortunately frequent. Even home break ins wont warrant much investigation time, just a report, unless there is a violent act to go along with it. So, I have no problem believing Mark when he said police weren't interested. It's definitely par for the course here in Portland. I would imagine that in other areas, it's similar. We have a lot of homeless people in our area just walking around. I see "package stolen" notifications on Nextdoor pretty much every other day.
poundtown 8y ago
personally i hope its staged. from both a legal and safety stand point id be freekin sweating everyday thinking all those fools would come kill me or file suit of some bogus injury charge for disrespecting them. he put it up on the tubes with his name etc. so dumb if its not staged.

astrodust 8y ago

You couldn't pay me enough to be an "actor" who had their house or car glitterbombed.

ionforce 8y ago
And get fart sprayed on.
- palotasb 8y ago
  You're assuming that if it's fake, the spray is still real.
  - jackhack 8y ago
    ace body spray -- still can't pay me enough.
- southerndrift 8y ago
  Which doesn't happen at all incidents. E.g. the last thief who opens the package in his house doesn't complain about a smell at all. So chances are that this is staged.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

Fogest 8y ago

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.

kaivi 8y ago

I've had the same thought when I first saw it. Some suspicious things: thieves talking to themselves, that lady throwing the box into her own garbage bin, zero attempt at disassembly or closer inspection of the box, no police involved. Also GPS is just not that good for locating anything of that size in given circumstances, and it would not have worked in the parking garage. Too many things could have gone wrong here, but they did not. The design is subpar in my opinion, for somebody who worked on a Mars rover. Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously?

dageshi 8y ago
> Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously? Why wouldn't you use this? Seems like if you want to push video data over the cell phone network then using some cheapo android phones with data sims is by far and away the simplest and most robust solution? Anything you build yourself to do that job is gonna be way more prone to error?
ocdtrekkie 8y ago
A lot of people talk to themselves. Most small-time thieves are not known for incredible intelligence. If you look close enough to realize it has cameras, you might realize you are on video and should get rid of it quickly. Consumer products are far more reliable than rolling your own solution nine times out of ten. Had he failed to recover the device, the video still would've been pretty cool. If it's traceable, throwing it in your own trash isn't much worse than throwing it elsewhere, since it already has the coordinates of your house anyways. GPS works fine on small packages and a lot of businesses/products exist specifically to take advantage of this. Also note that as full-featured smartphones, he's likely got the full power of Google Location Services in play, which can identify what floor of a building (or parking garage) you're on, and of course, even if it failed to get signal in the parking garage would surely show location up to the parking garage. Inside a parking garage, a bright white box is not hard to find. Also, he has four GPS devices facing different directions, so he's got a lot of backup for failure here.
aqme28 8y ago
>Too many things could have gone wrong here, but they did not. The design is subpar in my opinion, for somebody who worked on a Mars rover. Custom printed board plus a bunch of smartphones, seriously? What would you propose? The best design is often the easiest/cheapest one, and this looks like pretty simple.

tylerl 8y ago

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

hjek 8y ago
> That's not Mark's gig. Apparently it is. https://gizmodo.com/viral-video-of-glitter-bomb-for-package-thieves-exposed-1831254130 https://gizmodo.com/viral-video-of-glitter-bomb-for-package-...

Firebrand 8y ago

Mark reportedly lives in California, a two-party state. Wouldn’t he be running afoul of wiretapping laws, regardless if he’s recording criminals?

francislavoie 8y ago
Sure, but do you really think the criminals will present him with a lawsuit... when they literally stole from him?
- EGreg 8y ago
  What if the DA does?
- TallGuyShort 8y ago
  Dumber lawsuits than that have won.
ectospheno 8y ago
You are allowed to record crimes in progress in two party states.
otterley 8y ago
Wiretapping is the recording of a telephone conversation (or modern equivalent). If it’s not a telephone conversation, it’s not subject to the law’s consent requirements.
gnopgnip 8y ago
This all happened in a suburb of Chicago
LinuxBender 8y ago
How does Amazon and Google get away with it? When you put their listening devices in your home, do you sign a legally binding contract? Honest question, I've never bought one. If a contract is sufficient, does it have to be signed in writing or witnessed? If not, then could he have a sign at his door stating that acquiring the package provides consent to monitoring? Is there a lawyer here that could answer those questions, pro bono? [Edit] Maybe it would be sufficient to put wording on the box that basically says, "by touching or taking this packages.... yada yada..."

t0mbstone 8y ago

I seriously doubt that andy sane person would glitter and stink bomb their own car.

slig 8y ago
The stink thing could be fake (we can't tell from the video only) and the glitter on a car, well, maybe there are desperate people out there that will gladly take US X,000 for the trouble. I don't think the video is fake, though.
duiker101 8y ago
I'm pretty sure I've seen people doing dumber things for little money. That said, I don't think it's staged.

VectorLock 8y ago

It would be funny if this spawned a bunch of copy cats which then drives down the incidents of package theft because thiefs are paranoid of getting prank packages. I bet somebody will soon start selling this as a product. And people will just send them to their friends instead of targeting package thiefs. "Pranked you bro!" Then there will be a bunch of backlash.

dvtrn 8y ago
>And people will just send them to their friends instead of targeting package thiefs. "Pranked you bro!" No need to wait for that, it's already a thing: https://www.ruindays.com/ https://www.ruindays.com/ Some have sent far...erm...shittier things in the mail: http://time.com/3634443/cards-against-humanity-poop-black-friday/ http://time.com/3634443/cards-against-humanity-poop-black-fr...
- VectorLock 8y ago
  No camera or motorized glitter-whipper on this though. Being able to see your victim's face and reaction is what really makes it.
rapind 8y ago
Just in time for me to sell my GlitterBombDetector TM.

modzu 8y ago

it would be cool to see the source for the project, like what triggered the cloud uploads or how the gps data was mapped

nothrabannosir 8y ago

If this was staged, this guy is a fantastic actor. The shot of him “being out of his comfort zone” when retrieving the box, in particular, would have my sincere respect if it were not genuine. That is professional grade acting. Something you generally don’t find in YouTube click bait fakes.

paavoova 8y ago
That's exactly what made me think it's staged. Despite stating contrary, he seemed incredibly eager to drive to an unknown location, and hop out of his car without scouting the direct vicinity. How could he have known the thief wasn't still hanging around? Someone willing to steal might also be willing to mug and/or physically retaliate against the person who just glitter bombed them coming to pick up their package.

tomcam 8y ago

> Considering the views / subscriptions are the main motivation here Where is that stated?

98codes 8y ago

The lack of police response is par for the course in a number of cities these days.

bufferoverflow 8y ago
Which makes no sense. You pretty much have a criminal case ready, there's video evidence. They will likely plead guilty without going to trial.
- jboy55 8y ago
  What's the crime? Stealing something that is less than $1000? They could have stolen that from the front of a store and if they weren't detained by a store cop, the police won't do anything typically. If they plead guilty, they probably would just get a small fine, not worth the time of a detective to make the case.
  - axaxs 8y ago
    Serious question then... what's the deterrent? Sounds like a person could spend all day looking for packages, resell the contents, at the risk of just paying a small fee if one happens to prosecute...
    - jboy55 8y ago
      Welcome to the reality. Typically, the criminals are caught with lots of items, and there's theft and possession of stolen property. Or if they are stopped, they are also carrying drugs and they'll get charged with that. Edit: Also, its not so easy to sell a bunch of random things for the cash. For every iphone that might get you a 100 or so in one transaction, there's a bunch of random things that you might get you $20 if you spend a day trying sell them.
  - bufferoverflow 8y ago
    > What's the crime? That's a ridiculous question. It's theft. Which is illegal. > If they plead guilty, they probably would just get a small fine 1) That's only if it's their first time. 2) It reduces future crime. With the current attitude (like yours) more criminals are incentivized to steal packages.

dylan604 8y ago

>it's easy to say, "police weren't interested" I’ve had my house robbed, and had evidence from the bank when the robbers tried to use the checkbook to send money through Western Union. They had photos, state issued identification, address, etc of the people collecting the payments. The assigned detective would not read an email or respond to voice mails. The detective said he was too busy to read emails. Not sure that’s the piece of evidence to hang my hat on that this might be a hoax.

rebbie 8y ago
You can try to press charges yourself. The police really don't want to help in such cases but I've found that once they know you are serious and have the proper evidence/witnesses they will at least steer you in the right direction.
- jboy55 8y ago
  You can't press charges yourself. You can go directly to the DA with your evidence and hope they press charges, but there is no role for you as a citizen to instigate a criminal preceding. https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2015/12/pressing-charges-what-does-it-mean-and-who-does-it.html https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2015/12/pressing-charges-w... You could sue them in court.
  - dylan604 8y ago
    Getting robbed is just the opening salvo in getting fleeced. The second round is the insurance company. Yes, I know insurance fraud exists, so one way the insurance companies "protect" themselves is to issue a check for a fraction of the value of the items stolen. They know most people will not replace the stolen items. If you do replace the items, then you have to re-submit your claim with the receipt to show it was actually replaced. They will then decide if they want to reimburse the difference from the original payout. You're also left pretty defeated with the lack of response from the police, then you have the beat down with the insurance company. Asking the individuals to go after a civil suit is just too much. Had I known about it, I might have done it. The police nor the insurance ever suggested this was possible. Even still, what are the odds of actually receiving any payment from a civil suit win?

mschaef 8y ago

I'd be honestly be concerned about retaliation. The people that got hit with the glitter bomb can probably trace back where they found it, and have already demonstrated a lack of strict attention to the law. > it's their own car (could be a beater picked up for a few hundred dollars) At least one of them was a fairly nice looking Lexus.

stupidbird 8y ago

Feels real to me generally — actors are usually easy to spot, and these would be surprisingly good actors. The police are not going to do anything in my experience. I literally caught someone in the act of stealing a package and the police specifically told me to do nothing and file a report. I submitted clear video of a face and apparently this was a known thief to others in the neighborhood, so I even gave them the person's name. They're still stealing packages 6 months later. The police tell me there are warrants pending.

mikestew 8y ago

(it's easy to say, "police weren't interested" ) It's easy to say, because after a while it kind of just rolls off the tongue. If there's no blood, my experience says police aren't interested. And in some jurisdictions, it better be a lot of blood.

ams6110 8y ago
Yeah it really depends on where petty theft falls in the spectrum of criminal activity in that area. In a quiet small town it might get a detective assigned. In a lower-class urban neighborhood, well the cops have bigger fish to fry.

anewguy9000 8y ago

most people still seem to think of youtube as home movies. they dont understand its ursurped traditional "television", and all the strings attached to that (its media -- it's not reality! it's a "reality show") there are many comments here that read something like, "mark wouldn't do a fake video..." as if they know mark personally. it's like debating if tom cruise really shoots people in mission impossible. you can debate this if you want, maybe mark's followers really do "know" what, how, and why he posts to youtube. but please never stop 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 and questioning

ryanmercer 8y ago

>What are people's thoughts on if this is staged? 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.

root_axis 8y ago
Nothing you've listed here precludes fakery. > good luck talking random friends to let you bomb their cars and houses with glitter. Right. Typically you pay an actor to do fake things that a real person would not be on board with.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  >Nothing you've listed here precludes fakery. You think he can get a decent engineering job, especially for a government agency, in the future with a viral public hoax on his record? Yeah, probably not and YouTube isn't going to rake in money forever, not that he uploads often enough to be anywhere near a top earner anyway.
  - root_axis 8y ago
    > You think he can get a decent engineering job, especially for a government agency, in the future with a viral public hoax on his record? Who cares? Those are arbitrary rationalizations that didn't necessarily factor into the creator's reasoning; you're simply projecting post facto reasoning that supports your preconceived conclusions. People who fall for scams and fakes use this same flawed reasoning all the time: "would he really lie about this? It can't possibly be worth it, I have considered all possibilities and have perfect information, there is no way that someone would do something that is obviously a bad choice from my perspective"...

deleted 8y ago

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mr_tristan 8y ago

Unfortunately, it's becoming a pretty common problem. Here in Portland, the police is understaffed, largely because the hiring process is insane. (It can take a full year to complete the background check - so onboarding new officers is a slow process.) Thus, they prioritize responding to violence or possible major damage - given the high number of homeless addicts on Portland streets, it's unfortunately frequent. Even home break ins wont warrant much investigation time, just a report, unless there is a violent act to go along with it. So, I have no problem believing Mark when he said police weren't interested. It's definitely par for the course here in Portland. I would imagine that in other areas, it's similar. We have a lot of homeless people in our area just walking around. I see "package stolen" notifications on Nextdoor pretty much every other day.

poundtown 8y ago

personally i hope its staged. from both a legal and safety stand point id be freekin sweating everyday thinking all those fools would come kill me or file suit of some bogus injury charge for disrespecting them. he put it up on the tubes with his name etc. so dumb if its not staged.