Mark Rober's Final Glitter Bomb Targets San Francisco Car Thieves
It must be a Festivus miracle, because Mark Rober built one more glitter to target the car thieves of San Francisco.
We've been covering Mark Rober's glitter bomb antics for several years now and his unique approach to justice is always a big hit. Sadly, Rober said that his last glitter bomb was going to be the final one. But it must be a Festivus miracle, because he built one more glitter bomb to target the car thieves of San Francisco.
If you haven't heard, car break-ins are a really common problem in the city of San Francisco. These are smash-and-grab jobs and the thieves are gone within a matter of seconds. They typically drive up to a parked car, smash open a window with tool, snatch up any bags or items that look valuable, and drive off before anyone can react. Their getaway vehicles tend to have stolen license plates, so video evidence isn't much help. According to local police, San Francisco averages more than 50 of these thefts every single day.
Rober wanted to fight that crime with his legendary glitter justice, while also collecting valuable data that could prevent it in the future. To accomplish that, he and his team redesigned the glitter bomb again.
The new glitter bomb uses cartridges of compressed CO2 to eject ultra-fine glitter and fart spray. When triggered, the device turns a servo motor to open the valve of a bike tire inflator on the CO2 cartridge. This is a compact design, so they were able to fit several of them in the bomb to ensure that thieves received a good dousing. A custom PCB controls the servo motors and has a built-in cellular LTE connection, so it can send status updates and receive trigger commands. That glitter bomb fits into the base of a special bait bag, which also has two smartphones to record video of the action and provide GPS tracking.
As in previous years, the shenanigans caused by the glitter bombs were priceless. It turns out that thieves don't like it when they get a stinky mess instead of free stuff. But this time, Rober was also able to get some intel on where thieves were taking the stolen goods. That led him to a specific building where people go to fence a remarkably wide range of products to unscrupulous customers.
Of course, Rober can't do much with that information on his own. But he teamed up with a local investigative journalist who can help shine the light on this criminal activity. At the very least, we get some great entertainment and maybe thieves will think twice before snatching bags from San Francisco's cars.