Frequent automotive break-ins in San Francisco are a serious drawback for the town’s residents and the SFPD. Prosecutors and police are unable to punish thieves on account of a legislation demanding proof {that a} automobile was locked on the time of a break-in, which most individuals are unable to supply. This has created a loophole that lets thieves go free, however San Francisco residents are combating again with glitter bombs and intelligent units, which make it simple to establish thieves.
One of those residents is former Apple product designer Mark Rober, whose tech outfit, CrunchLabs, bought their begin combating porch pirates in California with elaborate units that document audio and video footage, in addition to offering GPS monitoring, to catch individuals stealing packages off entrance porches. Rober then moved onto making comparable glitter bombs to lure in automotive thieves, in keeping with SF Gate:
The method glitter bombing works is splendidly easy: After Rober hides the mechanism in backpacks or baggage, thieves broke into his automotive, making off with the low-hanging fruit. Then, utilizing compressed fuel, a motorbike inflator and motor, the booby lure ejects biodegradable glitter and fart spray onto the offender…
But you don’t must take SF Gate’s phrase for it. You can watch the splendidly elaborate units that Rober and crew got here up with on his YouTube channel:
From the video, it’s apparent Rober isn’t some novice making adhoc glitter bombs to barely inconvenience thieves within the break-ins, which transcend particular person criminals. Rober explains (in different movies) that there are mainly networks of thieves working in shifts, protecting completely different components of the town. They take stolen items to fences who purchase the gadgets however discard of something not of worth, together with passports and aircraft tickets belonging to victims — who are typically vacationers and out-of-towners.
Rober designed a glitter bomb that goes right into a backpack, which is outfitted with onboard cameras and microphones identical to his glitter bombs designed to cease porch thieves. SF Gate provides that upon realizing the glitter bomb pack was bait “most people chucked the backpack back onto the street before much damage could be done, others hung onto them just long enough.”
Presumably, SF Gate is referring to thieves hanging on to the backpacks simply lengthy sufficient to be marked by the odor emitted by the units and, in fact, the glitter, which is notoriously exhausting to take away all traces of from on one’s pores and skin and clothes. This makes it simpler to establish the thief, though it’s unclear if the Rober’s glitter bombs yielded a profitable prosecution for thieves. At least they work as deterrents for now, till San Francisco can rein in its break-in drawback.
Source: jalopnik.com