A man prepared various booby traps to deter candy thieves on Halloween, including silly string, collapsible tables, and toothbrush swaps. He collaborated with Jimmy Kimmel for prank ideas and tested them for safety. The traps were set up across America, monitored in real-time, and successfully deterred greedy candy takers, teaching them to share. The project was part of a larger effort to promote engineering and problem-solving skills through fun and educational toys offered by Crunch Labs.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. The author spent a year preparing for a situation where someone would steal their Halloween candy.
2. The author created multiple booby traps to deter candy thieves.
3. The booby traps included a spinning candy ball, a collapsible table, and a mirror hand illusion.
4. The author also created a "Mulchman" character to scare away candy thieves.
5. The author used a baby monitor to keep an eye on the candy bowl with almost zero latency.
6. The author set up a command center to monitor the candy bowls in real-time.
7. The author put up a random assortment of 10 different contraptions on 35 porches across America.
8. The author waited for it to get dark and for trick-or-treaters to arrive.
9. The author used a variety of pranks, including Silly String, a car horn, and a vibrating motor.
10. The author also used a fake news broadcast to shame candy thieves.
11. The author created a subscription box service called Crunch Labs Buildbox that delivers DIY toys and engineering projects to kids.
12. The author offers a holiday special with 2 months free and a chance to win a platinum ticket to build with him and his team.
13. Jimmy Kimmel was mentioned as the person who inspired the author to prank kids who take more than one piece of candy.
14. The author used an ultrasonic speaker to play whisper sounds to scare away candy thieves.
15. The author used a load cell and microcontroller to detect when too much weight was removed from the candy bowl.