He was caught using two fake reactions, and he owned up to those. But we can’t say if the others are real or not with any certainty. Personally, I thought the parking garage reaction looked like bad acting as soon as I saw it, so I’m still skeptical.
He also initially claimed the package was placed in Illinois, but he edited the video after people called him out on it.
And he presents the device as something he engineered himself, only briefly mentioning that someone helped him. Another video shows that the other guy, Sean Hodgins, actually built it (find the link in jtokoph's comment below).
So who really knows? It wouldn’t be the first time something on the Internet was staged.
Its disappointing that Sean is getting absolutely zero credit. Mark Rober just keeps saying “I built”. There’s a link in the description but just suggests Sean has more build details.
He could have at least brought Sean into the original video for some credit. Who knows, maybe this was the deal and Mark is giving Sean all of the ad revenue in exchange for the views/subs/credit...shrug
Faked and discovered to include fake reactions that were then removed, are different situations. Mark has been producing high quality educational and entertaining videos that encourage kids to get into science. I have personally watched kids go nuts over his Fluidized air bed experiments, and convince their parents to try it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My4RA5I0FKs
It sucks there was fake content in there, but the device was real and the fake actions removed.
I'm a bit more miffed that he didn't make it very clear he didn't create the device. I enjoyed watching the video of the guy who did, but I only got to watch that video because somebody in the last HN thread recommended it.
> "I was presented with information that caused me to doubt the veracity of 2 of the 5 reactions in the video [...] It appears (and I've since confirmed) in these two cases, the 'thieves' were actually acquaintances of the person helping me."
It wasn't faked. The incidents where the pickups happened at his place were real. However he paid people to place it on their doorstep and those people had an accomplice pick it up.