YouTuber Admits Aspects of Viral HomePod Glitter Bomb Video Were Faked (appleinsider.com) 187
New submitter ArchieBunker writes: A viral video featuring a booby-trapped HomePod box that pranked package thieves with a glitter bomb has been criticized for faking some of the reactions of the would-be "thieves," who were in fact acquaintances of friends of the video's creator. The video, "Package Thief vs. Glitter Bomb Trap" by former NASA engineer Mark Rober, featured the creation of a device constructed inside a HomePod box that spread out glitter once the HomePod box was opened, with four smartphones used to film the event and subsequent reactions from all angles. Clips were shown of people claimed to be package thieves, opening the box and being covered with glitter, before throwing the contraption away.
One thief's vehicle was found to have a number of similar features to one parked near to the house of a friend of Rober, used to film some of the illicit acquisitions, suggesting it was acquired by someone who lived nearby. Another person used Google Street View and Zillow to analyze the third thief's video from inside her home, and determined the side yard and outdoor area bore a striking resemblance to the home next door to the friend's house. Posted to Imgur, the thread of evidence led to others questioning Rober on some of his later edits to the published video, including deletion of small sections and blurring out details. According to Rober, he offered to provide the box to people who were willing to place it on their doorstep, with the offer of financial compensation for successful recoveries of the package, and one "friend of a friend" volunteered to help. Rober has since confirmed that two of the five reactions used in the video were suspicious, and were subsequently removed, but insists the reactions for times when the box was stolen from his doorstep were genuine. "I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'" writes Rober in text placed underneath the video. "It genuinely works (like all the other things I've built on my channel) and we've made all the code and build info public."
One thief's vehicle was found to have a number of similar features to one parked near to the house of a friend of Rober, used to film some of the illicit acquisitions, suggesting it was acquired by someone who lived nearby. Another person used Google Street View and Zillow to analyze the third thief's video from inside her home, and determined the side yard and outdoor area bore a striking resemblance to the home next door to the friend's house. Posted to Imgur, the thread of evidence led to others questioning Rober on some of his later edits to the published video, including deletion of small sections and blurring out details. According to Rober, he offered to provide the box to people who were willing to place it on their doorstep, with the offer of financial compensation for successful recoveries of the package, and one "friend of a friend" volunteered to help. Rober has since confirmed that two of the five reactions used in the video were suspicious, and were subsequently removed, but insists the reactions for times when the box was stolen from his doorstep were genuine. "I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'" writes Rober in text placed underneath the video. "It genuinely works (like all the other things I've built on my channel) and we've made all the code and build info public."
Its about the tech (Score:2, Insightful)
not about the 'reality TV' aspect of it.
Don't really care if the reactions were fake or real.
Re:Its about the tech (Score:4, Interesting)
In this era of sensationalist news and politicians being pilloried for stuff that was actually said on SNL...I can't agree. And this WAS in the 'real' news. It's unacceptable. I mean, the video is kind of irresponsible to begin with. What if people copy the idea, and an actual thief who knows where their victim lives realizes they're holding something that can land them in jail? Package thieves aren't exactly career astronaut types.
And it turns out it fabricated people and reactions. What if people look at the ethnicity of most of the "thieves" and they have some very unfortunate beliefs reinforced? I know that might sound like a hysterical example, but it's not particularly my point. This video was thoughtless AND a lie. What respect do his ideas deserve? I wish the guy absolutely no harm, but he deserves to be a pariah and ignored from now on.
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He deserves some kind of prize for the fart gas dispenser.
Re:News reported on the viral video, not its verit (Score:5, Informative)
Except professional journalism is supposed to involve research and verification. Without investigation and verification it's not news, it's just broadcast entertainment repeating social-media content. Any "news" outlet that does that kind of "reporting" deserves to be called out for their professional malfeasance.
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Booby traps are a crime. If the news didn't already know it was a show, they wouldn't have run the piece. It was most likely a paid promotion in the first place, so of course they know.
Re: News reported on the viral video, not its veri (Score:2)
Are they now. Can you please post excerpts from the relevant part of the criminal code?
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You are quite right, and I see no reason to stop calling them out loudly and regularly over that fact. At worst it keeps a reminder in the face of those all those fellow voters able to overlook that fact. Journalism has pretty much died in the U.S., and those wearing its garments deserve to be publicly spat on with regularity, for the good of everyone. With a lot of luck maybe it will even inspire real journalism again, if only as a fresh new competitor in the attention market.
Re: Its about the tech (Score:2)
Well, maybe you shouldn't have faked some of it (Score:4, Insightful)
Once a cheater, always a cheater. Sure, you feel gutted. You got caught.
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Monetizing Youtube has caused a lot of sensationalist garbage to be posted.
I liked it better when it was home movies.
Re:Well, maybe you shouldn't have faked some of it (Score:5, Informative)
Except he didn't cheat.
He was cheated. Or scammed.
Basically he lent the unit to a friend of a friend. And being someone who would be compensated for the video, he offered that person some of the compensation because it's the fair thing to do.
Turned out that person was greedy and had their neighbour "steal" it, and probably didn't offer them compensation. Just to get that money.
And to his credit, he edited out the part that was faked once he found out and re-posted it. Anyone who knows YouTube means when you do this, you LOSE all those views - you cannot edit a video and retain the comments/likes/views. You delete that video and re-post it, which means the comments/likes/views starts from scratch. It's one of the most requested features especially now you can't add annotations afterwards so if you make an error, it's there forever unless you want to scrap it all.
Of course, there are reasons for and against YouTube allowing re-posting of videos and retaining the comments/likes/views.
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I don't need to watch any videos to see if he cheated, because he already admitted that he cheated. The case is closed. He's a cheater.
Re: Well, maybe you shouldn't have faked some of i (Score:4)
No, he admitted **he** was duped. Not at all the same thing.
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It wasn't his friend's house. It was the house of a friend-of-a-friend who lived 2 hours away. And it wasn't even opened at that friend-of-a-friend's house. It was opened at the house of a NEIGHBOR of that friend-of-a-friend. Why would he be expected to recognize the inside of the house of a NEIGHBOR of someone he barely knows? And even if he did, why should he automatically know that the neighbor wouldn't steal a package? Some of my former neighbors would likely be my first suspects-- not only because they
Re:Well, maybe you shouldn't have faked some of it (Score:4, Insightful)
It is not a trivial thing. Supposedly it was a multi-month build. He had enough time to think this over. His videos regularly have millions of views. Power comes with responsibility. Cheaters like him create unrealistic expectations and prevent the success of some honest people, whose real achievements seem bland in comparison to the embellished exploits of cheaters. There's currently a scandal about a German reporter who admitted that he had faked some aspects of his stories that were published in the "Spiegel" magazine. He is a celebrated journalist who won several prizes for his stories. Some honest journalists did not get recognized for their actual journalism because that twat felt he could cheat "to live up the pressure". Fuck cheaters.
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He didn't cheat. The friend-of-a-friend (who lives 2 hours away) cheated by having their own acquaintances "steal" the package so they could get the compensation from Rober for retrieving the package for him. They tried to make money off of Rober by pretending to recover the "stolen" package. So in reality, they WERE thieves, but they were stealing compensation they didn't really deserve from Rober through fraud instead of unknowingly stealing packages from porches. That's on them, not on him. And it's impr
Re: Well, maybe you shouldn't have faked some of i (Score:1)
And I'm sure the Patriots have legitimately won some of their games.
Does it matter?
They cheated in an attempt to win a Super Bowl multiple times. They are cheaters. Does anyone really care if they sometimes play well?
Say it ain't so! (Score:4, Insightful)
The thing that struck me the most was the number of 'thieves'. While 'porch pirates' are a real thing, they aren't so common that one guy or even a couple of them could in short order have so many packages lost to them.
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True, but we don't know over what time interval the "stolen package" videos were made. After all, Rober stated that the build occurred over six months or so. Given that, leaving the package out for a month or two in some neighborhoods resulting in a handful of thefts seems plausible to me.
Re:Say it ain't so! (Score:5, Insightful)
That aspect was thought out (Score:3)
Ridiculous. No one one do that because you probably wouldn't get them back.
A) They were GPS tracked the whole time.
B) That was the point of the incredibly stinky "Fart Spray", to ensure once the glitter had dispersed the thief would want to toss the package super quickly. If you didn't have that, yeah you were out $1k in phones or so (I don't think they were very high end phones).
It was probably enough value in phones to raise the theft to felony level...
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A real criminal would not toss it, they'd destroy it out of spite.
If thst was a package I had nabbed when it wasn't what I wanted I'd destroy it.
Most thieves would do so, if it's not valuable to the thief you destroy that thing. Stomp, crush, burn, etc
Noone tosses it out the window with fingerprints on it
Re:That aspect was thought out (Score:5, Informative)
A real criminal would not toss it, they'd destroy it out of spite.
A package is stinking up your car or home. Why on earth would you spend a second long than you had to with it? Remember this is a REALLY powerful smell. You say "real criminal" as if it was some determined noble warrior, not some lazy looser who does the easiest possible thing - which includes tossing a stinky package instead of actively seeking to destroy it.
Stomp, crush, burn, etc
Yeah that's a genius move for sure, to stomp on something you already know smells horrific, and was trapped enough to spread glitter all over you...
Noone tosses it out the window with fingerprints on it
You have watched WAY TOO MUCH CSI Mr McGruff. What "no-one" does is care at all about package thieves or fingerprints unless some truly serious crime is in play. Have you ever TRIED reporting package theft? Even with video the police just laugh. A package by the side of the road will mix with all the other trash and just be ignored.
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No, I've just been a criminal when I was young
Re: That aspect was thought out (Score:3)
The fart sprayis what makes you want to chuck it. That stuff is strong. It's like a skunk. You'd just want it out of there and there's no way you'd try to inflict more damage and make it smell worse.
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Yep, definitely; smash it with a hammer in the back yard, not in the living room. You're from the neighborhood, I can tell.
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LG (Score:2)
LG makes $200 smartphones. They could have been used phones, as well.
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Yes they do make $200 smartphones. The LG G5 is not one of them.
However the second hand option could be likely, as is the possibility that LG donated them for the video.
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>However the second hand option could be likely, as is the possibility that LG donated them for the video.
See, poor design.
They could have reduced parts count by using a Samsung smart phone to blow out the glitter. It's even easy to choose the appropriate model ever since they started rating batteries in milli-tons . . . :)
hawk
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Those were LG G5 models, they are available very cheap, because they were built very cheaply. They are renown for being universally of poor build quality and unreliable. Used copies generally go for less than $100, and are easy to find for less than $50 even, depending on what level of wear you're okay with. Since they were only desired for their cameras, it would probably be okay if they had shattered displays, so they could have been very cheap indeed.
Regardless, that was not a big investment. Unlikely to
Re:Say it ain't so! (Score:4)
If you had watched the video you'd know that the thief was sprayed with glitter and repeated squirts of fart gas, causing them to ditch the package. They had no idea there were any phones inside because they never kept the box long enough to open it. Why do people find this crap insightful?
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No one one do that because you probably wouldn't get them back.
Unless it is you have GPS tracking and a sure fire way to ensure that the would be thief would get rid of the package as quickly as possible without investigating further, e.g. smells like a devils arsehole.
Unless you're doing it to make a video which is expected to bring in revenue, or especially in this case: recognition and new viewers too.
Also it may surprise you that Youtubers actually get products donated for free in exchange for advertising, such as holding up a phone with a prominent LG logo and tal
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but the YT "star" would go and get the package
No. Anyone who knew there were $2000 of phones in it would get the package. Something quite obvious really based on your own surprise that he used something expensive.
Also why the quotation marks around star? You're talking about a person with enough followers to almost have a Diamond play button, who by estimates likely earned somewhere upwards of $80k (general estimates for a video of 45m views) for his video with his "expensive" phones. Are you jealous? Also see that word expensive? That is correct use o
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What struck me was the fact that he used about $2000 worth of phones to do each package. Ridiculous. No one one do that because you probably wouldn't get them back.
Yeah, but he's not providing a realistic project suggesting that people do this, it's an engineering challenge / attempt to make some entertainment for some sweet Youtube dollars.
Apart from anything the 10s of hours of skilled custom work to make it would probably dwarf the hardware costs, if you're totting up. It sucks that he pushed the 'entertainment' so far as to make the engineering aspect questionable, because it's a neat little build.
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The thing that struck me the most was the clever design and forethought that went into the design of the glitter bomb... including five servings of fart spray to encourage the Pirates of the Porch to launch the package from the car before discovering the four smart phones inside.
Did they "NBC the test results like the package theft was a GM vehicle explosion?" Almost certainly, and to the discredit of the thing they hoped to elevate, but they were not maladroit with the build.
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What struck me is that someone basically doxed the guy, posting details of his home from Google Maps and some house data site on Imgur, and then lots of other sites amplified the doxing and no-one seems to have stopped to think about it.
Also kinda sad that people even thought this was real in the first place. Does it not look like something professionally shot and edited on commercial grade equipment by professionals? Did the fact that his channel has 5.6 million subscribers and revenue to match not tip peo
Re: Say it ain't so! (Score:4, Informative)
Get Famous, people will track you down. What you called doxxing is just a Millennial buzzword for what paparazzi have done forever. The internet gives anyone a chance to be Famous, and also gives anyone a chance to be paparazzi.
Status Quo, nothing to see here.
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That's what the internet is like. I watched a k-pop video on youtube, that was filmed in Guam, and then I went on google maps and found all the locations that the scenes were filmed.
It took a couple hours. But it is fun looking around at different places on the computer.
He didn't get doxed. He published a video. With background data.
Some terrorist did that and somebody called in the location of the cave based on the background.
If you really want a challenge, try to read Anabasis and recreate the route of th
Also if you have 2 or 3 packages go missing (Score:3)
Re: Also if you have 2 or 3 packages go missing (Score:2)
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Everytime you get a packge you've got to drive on down to the main depot to pick it up
If that is considered acceptable service, I think I should start a package "delivery" service where packages are all stored in a warehouse where you have to come pick up yourself.
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You've never been to my neck of the woods.
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You know what they say in the real estate business, location, location, location. In some locations yep, stuff will be stolen real fast and in other locations, it can stand out there for years and of course in 'Gated Communities' you get fined if it is out there too long.
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The thing that struck me the most was the number of 'thieves'. While 'porch pirates' are a real thing, they aren't so common that one guy or even a couple of them could in short order have so many packages lost to them.
I'm sure this depends where you live. I used to live on a busy road and even though the house was a little far back from the road I had three packages stolen over the course of a summer. That was probably a high proportion of the packages that were left on the doorstep, as few were left there in total: the post office in the UK is not supposed to do that at all. I don't find his video so surprising.
Future in Politics? (Score:4, Funny)
Someone has a future in politics . . .
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Someone has a future in politics . . .
Delivering something that works while not fully disclosing the campaign contributions? Then admitting fault?
Nope, he's way too good for politics.
Dead giveaway (Score:5, Funny)
I suspected as much when the thief stopped, swept back his cape with one arm, stuffed the package into his top hat, and looked straight into the camera with an evil smile while twirling the end of his mustache between his fingers.
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Thought this was more than a little 'off'.. (Score:1, Interesting)
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He's the real deal. Real qualifications, his channel has a fair bit of science on it (and 5.4 million subscribers) and he does appear to be engineering quite a bit of stuff.
And like most big YouTube channels he has set up a production company to do professional editing and scripting and yes like everything on TV some of it is faked. Hopefully you didn't think everything you saw on TV/YouTube was real...
So basically people are upset that big YouTube channels are exactly like TV shows.
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Yeah brain problems all around. Like the people who don't understand that there are people making a living of designing funky things on Youtube, and then declare not only that the person has brain problems but also decide they know about their worklife in detail.
Speaking of attention whore... Where do you fit in on the grand scheme of things? "Never done Jack and two thumbs Bob, and sidekick don't say Dick, will laugh at other's failures though they have not done shit."
He should have used only genuine un-staged video (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:He should have used only genuine un-staged vide (Score:5, Informative)
The device wasn't faked because he posted blueprints and code for the whole setup. Unless he just didn't build the device, that would be quite of lot of work wasted to make those blueprints and code. All of it right here: https://github.com/IdleHandsPr... [github.com]
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Re:He should have used only genuine un-staged vide (Score:4, Informative)
fwiw, he posted yesterday that he found out a couple of examples were faked by collusion between some neighbors. He apologized profusely, and he realizes what kind of hit he has taken. I didn't bother with the vid once I saw there were some fakes.
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Oh, he "found out" that he accidentally faked them. That's cute.
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Hollywood, we're coming for you next! No more of these fake stories about fake people, fake ghosts, fake alien invasions, fake centipedes. From now on, we want the real stuff, you hear! If a guys loses his leg, he better not be seen with it off-set a few days later!!
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Damn, that cost him all his credibility.
Actually it cost him a small amount of credibility. The fact that the device is open source, has full designs available and still works as intended helps retain his credibility a lot.
Mind you my first reaction was:
a) this video will be boring.
b) did it take him 5 months to get all those packages stolen or does he live in a really shitty neighbourhood.
c) some of those are probably actors.
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Re: He should have used only genuine un-staged vid (Score:2)
So you think the iPhone advertisements use real facial expressions of real people : who are not professional actors showing those expressions for a fee ? How about ads of Pfizer products ?
And if an actor in the ads is found " faking "the expressions : iPhone clearly doesn't work ? Or the drug ?
As expected (Score:2)
2) script and film it
3) make up a story that could be true
4) ???
5) profit
Re: As expected (Score:2)
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56de2c53e4b0ffe6f8ea78c4?ec_carp=4175626833478598919
Of course it was fake (Score:4, Insightful)
You knew it was fake when the first "thief" didn't stomp the glitter-bot into the ground in frustration and anger.
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You knew it was fake when the first "thief" didn't stomp the glitter-bot into the ground in frustration and anger.
Remember it smells like shit. I'll be you a dollar your first reaction would not be to use your foot to determine where the smell came from.
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You knew it was fake when the first "thief" didn't stomp the glitter-bot into the ground in frustration and anger.
I disagree. Theives, like other people, aren't a stereotype.
Faked data (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'm especially gutted because so much thought, time, money, and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn't just taint the entire effort as 'fake,'"
But...it was fake. You faked all of your test data and presented it as real results, therefore your entire research project is, at best, suspect. You deliberately mislead your viewers and now you're shocked at the result.
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Yet, no more certainly an honest man is always a truthsayer, than a liar never is.
NASA dit it (Score:1)
He likes to mention that he worked for NASA, which to me tells thats where he learned to fake it!
Lies. We're surrounded by lies. (Score:1)
But of course an engineer wouldn't be stupid enough to commit a crime and then post it online for all to see. In case anyone was wondering, rigging up a bomb you expect to be stolen is illegal and will get you thrown in jail. Who are his poor friends who are now cleaning out glitter from their cars and rooms for the rest of their lives?
Does anyone know how common stealing packages off of door stops actually is?
Re: Lies. We're surrounded by lies. (Score:2)
You have a strange definition of bomb. It was a bowl of glitter that was spun with a motor to fling the glory out radially. It's pretty obvious from the video.
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Although people stealing things is a heck of a problem, glitter is an environmental pollutant. I don't know how much in comparison to waste caused by duplicate online orders, but even so, is there something better than glitter that could be used here?
Re: Lies. We're surrounded by lies. (Score:2)
That is definitely a valid point. I suppose you could go with iron or aluminium filings, but that could cause electrical issues in a car and open you to liabilities. Very fine sand could be very annoying as it gets into everything.
Takeaways... (Score:1)
I have two takeaways from this.
First, it's scary the amount of imagery a person can find with a little googling, including the inside of a residence and inside of specific vehicles.
Second, an outdated looking, run-down, smallish three bedroom house costs $450k there??? I just don't get it. Do you really get paid three times more there than in the "normal" parts of the country? Maybe I'm just a country hick when it comes down to it.
bland edgework (Score:2)
I was suspicious that too many edges had been sanded off the narrative: no data on how long it sat on the porch, no data on its final recovery after the last segment (what happened to the fart spray?), no data on anyone facing charges from police (there was way too much identifying data in these clips to prevent friends and relatives from recognizing the locations), and after the first segment, no data on who went out to collect the device.
Additionally, his tone leans slightly to the smug and away from the
Obviously it works and was raked (Score:1)
Both are obvious. It's a gamble between cost of hardware, liability and if the thief is prepared to out themselves as a thief to explore the possibility of liability.
That liability is only limited to worst possible iterations of this trap so I can't imagine the inventor being dumb enough to expose himself to any liability. At least he made a good joke out of why he covered up his address.
Correction: Faked (Score:2)
Please excuse my typo in the subject.
Go READ His Comment People (Score:5, Informative)
I love all the condemnation by people who apparently didn't bother to actually READ what he added to the video. He solicited 3rd parties who would be willing to place the package on their porch. He offered to compensate them for it. It was those third parties who had friends fake stealing the package. When he found out that these alleged thieves were fake, he edited them out of the video and disclosed the issue.
He did put a full response (Score:5, Informative)
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Note about 2 missing the reactions in the video- I was presented with information that caused me to doubt the veracity of 2 of the 5 reactions in the video. These were reactions that were captured during a two week period while the device was at house 2 hours away from where I live. I put a feeler out for people willing to put a package on their porch and this person (who is a friend of a friend) volunteered to help. To compensate them for their time and willingness to risk putting a package on their porch I offered financial compensation for any successful recoveries of the package. It appears (and I've since confirmed) in these two cases, the “thieves" were actually acquaintances of the person helping me. From the footage I received from the phones which intentionally only record at specific times, this wasn’t clear to me. I have since removed those reactions from the original video (originally 6:26-7:59). I’m really sorry about this. Ultimately, I am responsible for the content that goes on my channel and I should have done more here. I can vouch for that the reactions were genuine when the package was taken from my house. Having said that, I know my credibly is sort of shot but I encourage you to look at the types of videos I’ve been making for the past 7 years. This is my first ever video with some kind of “prank" and like I mentioned in the video it’s pretty removed from my comfort zone and I should have done more. I’m especially gutted because so much thought, time, money and effort went into building the device and I hope this doesn’t just taint the entire effort as “fake". It genuinely works (like all the other things I’ve built on my channel) and we’ve made all the code and build info public. Again, I’m sorry for putting something up on my channel that was misleading. That is totally on me and I will take all necessary steps to make sure it won’t happen again.
Re:He did put a full response (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't have mod points today, but mod parent up.
What we seem to have lost in this age is the ability of differentiated, graded responses. Everyone is either "omg, my hero!" or "that fraud, he's so evil!". There is no inbetween. Not in politics, not in economics and not in YouTubers.
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Don't have mod points today, but mod parent up.
What we seem to have lost in this age is the ability of differentiated, graded responses. Everyone is either "omg, my hero!" or "that fraud, he's so evil!". There is no inbetween. Not in politics, not in economics and not in YouTubers.
Mod parent up?? He paid people to put this on their porch, but only if he got the package back. What did he think was going to happen? The ex-NASA guy is either a real idiot when it comes to people, or he knew that some or all of the reactions would be fake. Only the most naive person in the world would not expect this result.
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He didn't pay random people, he paid friends. I don't know about your friends, but I generally trust mine to not pull a fast one on me over some change.
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He didn't pay random people, he paid friends. I don't know about your friends, but I generally trust mine to not pull a fast one on me over some change.
He said he paid friends of friends. And that he "put the feelers out" on who would be willing to do this for money. So... no. He got exactly what he should have, or most likely, did expect.
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Hell yes, friends of friends - but still not "random people". Acquaintances, distant friends, whatever. Again, I don't know about your social circles, but my friends of friends I might not trust with my car, but I'd be surprised if they pulled a fast one on me over something like that. What did he pay them? $50 maybe?
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Hell yes, friends of friends - but still not "random people". Acquaintances, distant friends, whatever. Again, I don't know about your social circles, but my friends of friends I might not trust with my car, but I'd be surprised if they pulled a fast one on me over something like that. What did he pay them? $50 maybe?
What kind of person do you suppose would be willing to go through the time and effort to deal with this for $50? Especially when they supposedly lived hours away from him. The kind of person who is desperate for money and did not think that having the reaction be from a fake thief would hurt in any way. I am not saying that they're bad people. They are just in desperate circumstances or they would not be doing this for $50. Which is exactly why this guy should have known better than to offer money for t
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Re:He did put a full response (Score:5, Insightful)
Outrage is all the rage right now. If it wasn't clear in this video, this is just a guy doing some youtube videos on the side, trying to coordinate things with friends and volunteers. If you watched several of his videos, this is entirely obvious, and he does not try to hide it. He is not an investigative journalist or detective, so you have to take that into account, as he may not be as rigorous in some of his methods. I was obviously skeptical when he lent the device to other people, as anyone should be. Based on the evidence, you could possibly blame him for being naive or gullible, but that is about it. If you have a problem with it going forward, just don't watch his videos, and simply question the credibility of any information where he is the source. Although, I suspect people will take it further though (harassment, etc), and I hope he doesn't suffer undue consequences.
No difference in lying vs being lied to? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are a lot of rage filled comments here about him being a liar, when it seems to me his main crime was gullibility?
I've occasionally watched his videos for years, and he seems to be a fairly decent, very smart guy. He did formerly work for NASA as an actual engineer - his interactions with current NASA personnel are proof of that.
His story is that obviously he couldn't get that many thief interactions on his own doorstep, so he loaned the build out to friends, and friends of friends with a cash reward for interactions with recoveries...I think that was his mistake. Once you bring money or fame into it, people are assholes; with both involved it's almost guaranteed. So some of them staged the reactions, ostensibly for the cash, but imo more for the internet fame...and now that's screwed him over.
His "crime" if anything isn't lying, it's being gullible and trusting.
Re: (Score:2)
There are a lot of rage filled comments here about him being a liar, when it seems to me his main crime was gullibility?
I've occasionally watched his videos for years, and he seems to be a fairly decent, very smart guy. He did formerly work for NASA as an actual engineer - his interactions with current NASA personnel are proof of that.
His story is that obviously he couldn't get that many thief interactions on his own doorstep, so he loaned the build out to friends, and friends of friends with a cash reward for interactions with recoveries...I think that was his mistake. Once you bring money or fame into it, people are assholes; with both involved it's almost guaranteed. So some of them staged the reactions, ostensibly for the cash, but imo more for the internet fame...and now that's screwed him over.
His "crime" if anything isn't lying, it's being gullible and trusting.
Is anyone so naive to expect that if they pay someone to have a package stolen AND returned that the person is going to actually let any random person steal the package? Come on. I'd expect 9 out of 10 elementary school kids to know better than that. And what internet fame did the people who put the packages out receive? I don't recall seeing any of their names or faces in the video, though I admittedly watched it days ago and do not remember. I think the people being gullible are the ones that are givin
SubjectIsSubject (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When I watched it I thought something looked wrong, but I couldn't say exactly what.
All the major news outlets and FOX covered it:
FOX:
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/f... [foxnews.com]
CNN:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18... [cnn.com]
ABC:
https://www.abcactionnews.com/... [abcactionnews.com]
NBC:
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/new... [nbcnewyork.com]
https://www.nbcchicago.com/new... [nbcchicago.com]
https://www.nbc-2.com/clip/147... [nbc-2.com]
CBS:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/... [cbsnews.com]
Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
New York Post:
https://nypost.com/2018/12/19/... [nypost.com]
Huffington Post:
https://www.huffing [huffingtonpost.com]