The YouTuber behind one of this week’s most viral videos on the internet revealed parts of his “glitter bomb” prank was staged without his knowledge.
Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer, posted a glitter bomb trap earlier this week, a prank in which package thieves were unknowingly stealing a fart-scented glitter bomb disguised in an Apple HomePod.
In the original video (which has now been altered), Rober explained how he made the glitter bomb come to life. He then set up hidden cameras within the package to capture so-called thieves stealing it and opening it in their cars or homes.
READ MORE: ‘Porch pirate’ swipes Amazon box, gets more than she bargained for
On Thursday, Rober revealed to fans two of the “thieves” in the video knew it was a prank. He claimed he wasn’t aware of this.
“I was presented with information that caused me to doubt the veracity of two of the five reactions in the video. These were reactions that were captured during a two-week period while the device was at a house two hours away from where I live,” he said on YouTube.
Rober said in order to do the prank, he found a friend of a friend who volunteered to leave the package on the porch. “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.”
But it turns out two of the people who stole the package from the porch actually knew it was fake.
READ MORE: Kingston police catch alleged delivery package thief
“It appears (and I’ve since confirmed) in these two cases, the ‘thieves’ were actually acquaintances of the person helping me,” he said. “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. I’m really sorry about this.”
He said he is responsible for the content that goes onto his page and he should’ve done more to prevent this.
“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 seven years,” he continued.
“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.'”
He added the glitter bomb still works and all the coding and building information for the trap is available online.
On Twitter, after posting his mistake, fans were impressed with Rober’s genuine apology.
Some still called the video, “video of the year.”
READ MORE: Porch pirate or prank? Langley woman’s package stolen, then returned with apologetic note
Rober’s trap was posted the same day a Pennsylvania “porch pirate” took off with an Amazon box, only to discover it was filled with cat poop and clumpy litter.
And with the holidays officially days away, more headlines of package thieves or porch bandits seem to be popping up across North America, a friendly reminder to Canadians to keep an eye on their deliveries.
arti.patel@globalnews.ca