Mark Rober is a former NASA engineer who runs CrunchLabs, an educational toy kit company based in San Francisco. He also has a YouTube channel that educates and entertains over 50 million subscribers. After thieves shattered his Tesla window to look around for loose items, Rober decided to use his engineering skills to take a deeper look at these alarming car break-ins. He delivered some creative retribution, too.

Bait left bandits smelly and sparkly

20,000 vehicle break-ins plague San Francisco each year. To further investigate, Rober installed monitoring systems in several “dummy” cars and filmed people burglarizing them. Bandits shattered the test vehicle windows a dizzying number of times during the shoot.

Rober was sure to add his well-known Kevin McAllister-style approach. In addition to filming the crimes, the engineer set up some sophisticated “bait.” This came in the form of backpacks and luggage rigged with unpleasant surprises: fart spay and glitter bombs.

To package the “gifts” discreetly, he stacked two configured units. Each contained a CO2 bike tire inflator, a high torque servo motor, a pipe, and 900 psi of compressed gas. One would dish out the fart spray at high speed, and another would spew biodegradable glitter.

The bait was well-hidden inside backpacks and suitcases, along with trackers and additional cameras that recorded directly to the cloud.

If you’re into inventions and electronics, seeing Rober design and build this elaborate project is worth watching in itself.

Early on, Rober assumed that organized groups were behind these break-ins due to the sheer number and speed of the criminal acts. However, his shoot proved otherwise.

Car break-ins are symptoms of complex, layered issues

Most of the car thefts seemed to be executed by individuals acting independently. What’s more, many of them were clearly inexperienced. So, what was the underlying motivation?

In one instance, Rober’s tracking device landed at a known fencing operation on the 300 block of Leavenworth in the Bay Area. Fencing is the act of buying and selling stolen goods. In San Fran and other areas of the country, some “pop-up” or street markets are supplied by stolen items, with demand for inventory likely fueling car break-ins.

Bottom line: this issue isn’t simple. There are layers of systemic complications at play here that will take time and focused effort to address. This year, businesses and residents in the Tenderloin District in San Franciso have sued the city for allegedly using the area as a containment zone for drugs and homelessness.

While initially playful, Rober’s research revealed the tactics and serious underlying motivations for breaking into cars and stealing items inside.

Speaking of play, in one clip, a thief takes full blame for the horrible smell. Watch the full video below.