• NASA engineer creates glitter bomb package to thwart parcel thieves
    49 replies, posted
https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/18/nasa-engineer-glitter-bomb-parcel-pirates/?sr_source=Facebook
All fun and games till you blind someone, then knowing the US laws, you're gonna get sued. Glitter can scratch the shit out of your eyes and leave them open to infection. (Still cool though.)
is it really your problem if someone steals a package that was meant for you and it injures them that's like suing someone because you stole a knife off their porch and then when you got home you tripped and landed on it
wouldn't it fall under "boobytrapping" which iirc IS your fault if they get hurt?
Pretty sure you can sue if your walking out of someone's house with their tv you stole and slip on their icy steps. I don't even know where to fact check that but I'd imagine in court the 2 might be separated. Also there is a difference between them tripping on to your knife and you designing a knife that will stab them deliberately.
Wasn't there that case with a thief who fell through a factory roof and then got a pretty hefty sum in the following suit? Also there's quite a bit of difference between having an actual parcel stolen that then ends up injuring the perpetrator, and building a machine that is meant to be stolen that then injures the perpetrator. While watching the video I actually thought "what if someone opens that in a moving car, and ends up in an accident because of it?". I don't have any sympathy with the thieves, and tbh I'm only sorry that Mark Rober couldn't make more permanent damage to their cars' interiors, but I think there's a good argument to be made that Mark would be responsible in case of an injury.
"The were trespassing so I shouldn't get charged for them being injured by my automatic Bear trap launcher"
Probably their fault for driving while distracted (by opening a parcel), which is illegal.
if you are Intentionally opening, intercepting or hiding someone else's mail is the felony crime of mail theft. It comes with some heavyweight penalties, including five years' incarceration in a federal prison.
First article I see about it that felt the need to put NASA engineer into the title.
As far as I know, it's perfectly legal for a passenger in a car to open a parcel under usual circumstances, which could also distract the driver and cause an accident. I mean, I purposefully didn't state that the driver opened it specifically, but it also doesn't change that the parcel was set up exactly in a way that parcels don't generally work, with the intent to cause chaos. I'm not sure Mark Rober would be completely free from liability. I'm also not a lawyer, though.
I find it odd that leaving parcels on porches unattended is a thing in the first place. Over here if the customer isn't home the parcel is just left at the nearest post office for him to pick up, or shipping is rescheduled.
counterpoint: it took a redneck with a shotgun about 10 minutes to rig up a package to set off some blanks and scare the shit out of them.
I mean here you can tell them if you want them to just leave it (iirc), but per default they'll take it back to the post office if you're not home.
If you have a P.O. box which is what i would generally recommend, when you order your item have it sent there so that you can pick it up when you are able to instead of leaving it on your doorstep.
Only for USPS-delivered mail iirc
Don't get me wrong, I entirely agree with you, doesn't change the fact that the courts typically side with the criminal if injured in the presence of the victims home. A quick google and the first result demonstrates 5 such cases. https://www.protectamerica.com/home-security-blog/spotlight/5-cases-where-the-burglar-sued-homeowner_14222
If you sign up with an account on UPS you can have them deliver packages to your back door/porch by default as well. I've had them deliverered to my front door for almost a decade and I haven't had an issue. I also have a used police car in the driveway which might deter some folks
There's a special place in hell for the sort of casual kleptomaniacs that steal parcels like that. there's like a 1/100 chance itll be something they want or can sell, but they do it anyway because fuck you that's why. Really hope that guy took all that footage/etc to the police. The footage has their faces, liscence plates, GPS locations of their homes etc. Can't imagine a more watertight case than that.
This boobietrapping argument is so odd to me. Like, I can see that he could really get in trouble for someone being injured for a package that they STOLE, but you know that if he had just been home he could have just *shot them in the face for trespassing* and it would have been hunky dory according to the law. In a perfect world I would rather have this box explode with permanent ink or tar. In a worse world, it could just plain explode. I don't think people that steal packages really deserve anything less.
Wouldn't such footage be untenable in court due to wiretapping laws? Or at least easily argued as such. I know that I've seen other cases where evidence in similar forms has had to be omitted because of the manner in which it was collected.
Could probably be overcome with a warning label that the thieves would ignore, that would say "you're being recorded if you pick this up". Your consent to being recorded is the act of picking it up. I don't know how much that would stand up in court, but in edge case scenarios like this, the law isn't finalized and is still being iterated upon.
boobytrapping is illegal because it's indiscriminate. don't get me wrong, if someone's stealing a package then they aren't innocent, but it's illegal to boobytrap things because inevitably some kid will wander in and kill themselves, and you can't control if that happens or not.
To expand on this a little bit, you cannot know for certain that the device will solely trigger on a thief, and will do so in a way that is not harmful. What if the glitter flies into their eyes or nose (microplastics can cause serious injuries there)? What if the cam sprayer for the stink bomb malfunctions in such a way that it's left open and someone has an adverse reaction to it and their airway closes or something? Even this tame device is a liability nightmare. Now, if you instead want to just "dispose" of some used cat litter in a box and tape it up for "convenience," except you also left a plastic solo cup of water in there because you're "forgetful" and leave it on your porch because you're "lazy?"
Uh, no, in nearly every state if you just shot a tresspasser for grabbing a package that'd be illegal because there was no threat to you that justified lethal force.
Easy, replace the glitter with buckshot, then there won't be anyone around to sue you!
I don't know the specifics of the law, but it'd heavily rely on interpretation. Who knows. Worth investigating at least, fuck those people.
Thieves will evolve a set of sunglasses
IIRC he points out that he had captured people on camera already, but the police basically said "lol sorry".
nah, too noisy and leaves a mess. What you really need is a trap door right in front of the package that opens when it gets picked up. Just have that and an area dug underneath there from your basement to remove bodies from and you are better set. Not that I think about this sort of stuff often or anything.
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