Mark Rober‘s holiday tradition is back for a fifth — and potentially last — time. The engineer and YouTuber has unveiled “the Final GlitterBomb,” which is the ultimate form of his karmic prank machine.
Rober started developing his trademark porch pirate deterrent after two thieves made off with a package that was sitting in front of his house. The engineer’s first glitter-spewer was a simple booby trap, but the contraption’s design has evolved over the year. Rober has added in fart sprays and increased the number of phones that record footage from inside the device.
‘The 2022 edition, titled “GlitterBomb 5.0,” is more sophisticated than all of its predecessors. It is armed with a full gallon of fart spray and a loud siren. Rober also installed drones that burst out of the fake package, fly around, and drop glitter all over their surroundings. This time around, Robert doesn’t just target garden-variety porch pirates. He also left his rigged packages in vehicles in San Francisco, where car theft is all-too-common.
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For five years, these clever GlitterBomb have brought us prankish joy during the holiday season, but in the latest installment of the series, Rober implies that he’s doled out enough punishment to the package thieves of the world. He describes his latest creation as the “final” GlitterBomb, and at the conclusion of the video, he notes that his campaign against porch piracy has made a difference.
“Year-over-year, we’ve seen a decreasing number of package steals and a steadily increasing number of good samaritans,” Rober said. “Maybe people are becoming more considerate, or perhaps everyone just knows what a glitter bomb looks like now, but I love the idea that at some point, someone’s package wasn’t stolen because a would-be porch pirate remembered these videos and had second thoughts.”
If Rober’s days as a GlitterBomb designer are done, he will be able to devote more time to the other ventures within his creative universe. The YouTuber builds toys alongside some of his 23 million subscribers through a subscription box called Crunchlabs. Rober is also plotting a foray into TV through a Discovery Channel prank show called Revenge of the Nerd. Rober is working with Jimmy Kimmel on that venture, and the two entertainers have become close allies. Rober even filled in for Kimmel when the late-night star brought in a series of guest hosts earlier this year.
