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Mark Robers CrunchLabs S03E02 Backyard Squirrel 2 0 Bank Heist H 264
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00:00This is a bird feeder, and everything you see surrounding me in my yard is an attempt to protect it
00:05from four thieving squirrels.
00:06If they want the bird seed and the lifetime supply of walnuts in this bank vault, they'll first need to
00:11pass through my nine-part obstacle course.
00:13By design, it's extremely challenging. It's meant to test their mental limits and their physical limits.
00:19I held back no punches, but I have to admit in hindsight, I once again completely underestimated my adversary.
00:25And truthfully, I never thought I'd be that crazy guy in the neighborhood obsessing over the squirrels,
00:30but they started it first when they would constantly pillage the bird seed from any bird feeder I would put
00:35up about a year ago.
00:36That led to me defending it with an obstacle course, which they handily defeated,
00:40and so after a year of ruminating on how to avenge that L with a majorly improved version,
00:45and then two months of planning, my buddy John and I got together for a 20-second build montage.
01:11Here are the basic elements.
01:13For starters, here's their favorite bird feeder at the end of the course,
01:17and it's sitting atop Fort Nuts, the most secure walnut vault in the western United States.
01:22Now since birds can fly, they can come and go as they please and eat all the food they want,
01:27but the only way for the squirrels to make it right here is by surviving my nine-part grueling obstacle
01:31course,
01:32which all starts right here.
01:34Climbing up this pole to this platform is the single gateway to enter the course.
01:39Every other pole you see has some kind of countermeasure to keep the squirrel from just climbing up
01:43and then entering the course halfway through.
01:45And so the first challenge is this casino, which may seem like an odd choice
01:49until you realize that as we were building the course, we also built them some cozy little squirrel houses.
01:54So we put them up in a couple different trees, and after a few days,
01:56it looked like they'd actually made some renovations, so I went to take a closer look.
02:01And sure enough, here's the before, and here's the after.
02:04Even on the inside, they made some questionable decor updates.
02:07So while it might look like they were just using the houses to relax, or stretch, or look out the
02:12window,
02:13or like, um, wrestle, the satellite communications gear and the tactical mission planning
02:18and the mini vault to practice cracking a safe hold a completely different story.
02:22This gang of four high-end professional birdseed thieves were secretly planning to pull off
02:26an honest-to-goodness Mission Impossible Ocean's Eleven-style mega-walnut heist,
02:31which is why I was going to protect the birdseed and walnut vault
02:34with the most state-of-the-art security measures, just like the casino did in Ocean's Eleven.
02:38So once in the casino, you'll see the slot machine and the classic Vegas buffet,
02:42but with a warning.
02:43Take more than an ounce, and you're going to have to deal with security.
02:48Now that I got the squirrels on the run, they'll naturally want to jump to this bar,
02:51but there's a twist.
02:54Like it actually twists, which I think is going to give them some problems.
02:57But if they can figure this out, they'll jump into this crate.
02:59And the good news is that it's filled to the brim with their favorite food,
03:02which is walnuts.
03:03And I know this because I tested a bunch of different options,
03:06and they always went with the walnuts first.
03:08But the bad news is that once you add a little weight to the system,
03:11the helicopter starts moving, just like the helicopter for Mission Impossible.
03:15Oh, and we've got a baffle here at the top to stop a squirrel
03:17from just crawling along the wire from the fence.
03:20The helicopter stops next to this wall, which seems simple enough,
03:22except that the bricks randomly move and adjust themselves in and out.
03:26And of course, at any time, if they fall off,
03:30they've got to go back and start over the whole course from the beginning.
03:33After that, we come to their hideout.
03:35And this is when they'll switch from defense to offense,
03:37because it's where they hang out and plan.
03:39You can see it's sort of messy with their tools
03:41and their blueprints on the wall that show if they open the floor on the elevator,
03:45the elevator shaft leads them underground and into the sewers.
03:48Then if they crawl through the sewers,
03:50it will take them right to the control center for a second room
03:52that might look familiar.
03:53And just like in Mission Impossible,
03:55their goal is to go up through the ceiling to access the air vents.
03:59But there's no way to make it up there
04:00unless they type the password into the keyboard in the control room next door like this.
04:12And at that point, they can climb the ladder and they're in the vents.
04:15And the vents are a total maze.
04:17There's lots of different twists and turns they'll need to navigate up here.
04:19So at any moment, if they're too lost,
04:22they can always exit the whole course by using the one-way squirrel emergency exits,
04:26which also exists for any enclosed room on the whole course.
04:29And for the penultimate challenge,
04:30it's back down from the air ducts through this laser maze
04:33where they'll have to harness their inner Catherine Zeta-Jones.
04:37If they sufficiently touch any of the lasers,
04:39the metal base contacts and completes the circuit,
04:42which sends a signal from this microcontroller to a relay to a solenoid,
04:46which causes this pneumatic piston to fire,
04:48which slams this door shut for one minute.
04:50And because I'm basically certain they'll try and get to this point
04:52by climbing from the roof on top of this tube,
04:55I've placed a shield here with another enforcement squirrel to try and deter them.
04:58And so finally, if they've made it through the laser maze
05:00and everything that came before it, they've made it to Fort Nuts.
05:04And as far as I'm concerned,
05:05if they crack the safe by giving this handle a little turn,
05:09they've earned every last walnut in this bank.
05:13After the course was set up,
05:15they could definitely smell the walnuts in the vault,
05:17and then you could see them sort of working things out from the fence line.
05:20And so after two months of prep work,
05:22it was time to test our extensive security measures
05:24against this formidable set of 500-gram rodents.
05:31And right out of the gate, we got him with the buffet.
05:36And as he sticks his entire face under the sneeze guard,
05:39absentmindedly reading the sign,
05:40you could see the exact moment he realizes he might have screwed up.
05:47And the slow-mo shows Rick just really laying himself out.
05:52Oh, by the way, that's Rick.
05:53All four squirrels have names,
05:55and more importantly, like any crew looking to pull off a heist,
05:58they all have specific roles to play,
06:00starting with everyone's favorite, Fat Gus,
06:02who, of course, is the mastermind of this operation.
06:05On a heist, this is the role of the Frank Ocean or an Ethan Hunt.
06:09Now, I just have to say, for those who aren't familiar,
06:11last year I named one of the squirrels Fat Gus
06:13because he loved to eat and was a little on the hefty side.
06:17But then halfway through, I noticed he had nipples,
06:19which it turns out means he was actually a girl,
06:22and a pregnant one at that.
06:23So it was just a whole PR disaster.
06:25And I switched the name to Fantastic Gus
06:27and rephrased a few other things.
06:29But to be honest, Fantastic Gus just doesn't roll off the tongue like Fat Gus.
06:33So I asked permission to use my preferred phrasing,
06:35and as you can see, I got full consent.
06:38Next up is Rick.
06:39He's the acrobat, the greaseman, the gutsy one.
06:42He's the go-to for any task that is going to require some athletic abilities.
06:46And then we've got Marty.
06:48He's the hacker.
06:48Anything with computers or bank safes, and he's your guy.
06:52While he's really smart, he also scares pretty easy.
06:54And finally, we've got Frank with logistics.
06:57A good heist starts with a good plan.
06:59He's got the whole course memorized,
07:00and he's mapped it out and provided blueprints for the team.
07:03And so back to the course, we've got Marty the hacker here,
07:06who again is a bit skittish, so you can see he's coming in pretty cautious.
07:09But who can resist a buffet?
07:13Once again, the real magic is found in the slow-mo.
07:22Eventually, they realized security was just too tight
07:24to this casino, and Rick goes straight to the twist bar.
07:29Excellent.
07:29Here's try two.
07:37And with some motivation for the bird, he's like,
07:40I got this, I got this, I got this.
07:43I don't think I got this.
07:45The real-time replay on this one is great, too.
07:49And at this point, Fat Gus is like,
07:51I'm going to need that crate of walnuts.
07:53Let me show you how it's done.
07:54Which turns out somewhat predictably.
08:06Now, really frustrated,
08:07acrobat daredevil Rick tries a totally different route.
08:11But you've got to admire that effort.
08:19Logistics man Frank knows the wire connected to the fence leads to the helicopter crate.
08:24So he tries sneaking in the back door,
08:27and is also forced to retreat.
08:29And finally, Marty the Hacker realizes if you're just scared and you run real fast,
08:34the bar doesn't have time to spin on you.
08:36And you can see Rick just replicating the strategy.
08:39So after about two days,
08:41all of them can cruise through the first part of this course about this fast,
08:44and Fort Nuts was already feeling less and less secure.
08:48Fat Gus is like,
08:49wait, is this thing moving?
08:51I'm good.
08:52Here, Rick hypothesizes if he doesn't sit in the crate, it won't move.
08:56And here, he rejects that hypothesis with a legendary leap.
09:01And now's a good time to remind ourselves that squirrels are one of the few mammals
09:04that can survive a fall from any height.
09:06Because as you can see here,
09:07they make their body super flat to increase drag,
09:10effectively becoming their own parachute.
09:12But just in case, you okay, Rick?
09:14Yup.
09:15All good.
09:16And Marty the Hacker, Frady Cat, is just like,
09:20yeah, I'm super not down with this.
09:24Eventually, it's the fearless leader, Fat Gus,
09:27who demonstrates the ride is definitely worth it.
09:30And soon, you've got Frank and the rest of the gang following suit.
09:35Which leads us to the wall of a thousand moving bricks.
09:38And first up, you've got Fat Gus,
09:40who kicks things right off with a pull of his parachute.
09:45And Rick just barely misses.
09:49Skittish Marty gets one taste of a moving brick
09:52and absolutely yeets himself into this tree.
09:55And while there were plenty of instances
09:56where a moving brick did dump the squirrels,
09:59causing them to start over from the beginning,
10:00what was even better was Marty psyching himself out
10:03in the anticipation that a brick might move,
10:05even though the wall wasn't powered on for any of these clips.
10:13And thanks in part to the dutiful supervision of Fat Gus,
10:16eventually, like all the other challenges so far,
10:19they got it down to a science
10:20where they could cruise by the wall fairly quickly.
10:24And now's a good time to mention,
10:26the squirrels weren't the only ones attempting the course.
10:28This is Splinter the Rat,
10:29and here he is with one of his buddies.
10:31He liked to make the rounds to all the houses each night,
10:33which sometimes were vacant,
10:34and sometimes they weren't.
10:36There goes Frank to chase him off his lawn.
10:38And you might have noticed the stuff in the house.
10:40The squirrels would gather nesting materials from various sources,
10:43or, somewhat hilariously, just steal from each other.
10:47Here's a bonus Santa Claus impression
10:48for all the Fat Gus fans out there.
10:50So from Splinter and his buddies
10:52to not-at-all creepy possums,
10:54there's a surprisingly constant variety of wildlife
10:56that passes through a suburban backyard,
10:58including a dumb dog who, for some reason,
11:00is much less interested in squirrels
11:03than he is my camera gear.
11:04Which is a lovely segue back to the squirrel hideout,
11:07where the heist was really just picking up steam.
11:09What aesin' say
11:38parameters
12:09Gracias por ver el video.
12:10Y después de haber acceso a la computadora y bajó la ladder,
12:13Fatgust followed behind and joined him in the vents.
12:16Pero en el proceso, la herramienta de la herramienta de la herramienta de la herramienta de la herramienta de la
12:21herramienta de la herramienta de la herramienta de la herramienta.
15:23no solo para uno decoy, pero para ambos.
15:27Esto paves el camino para Marty the Hacker
15:29para ser el primero que crack el safe,
15:31y como se puede ver aquí,
15:33es muy contento.
15:40First, he just checks it out,
15:42como sí, sí, sí,
15:43es como el esquema showed.
15:46Y luego...
15:47el gran momento.
16:02Once the safe opened, these cargo nets unfurled,
16:04which just allowed better access to their loot.
16:07But interestingly, more often than not,
16:08after getting a walnut,
16:09instead of jumping off,
16:10they would go all the way back through the course.
16:12Here's Jumpy Marty exhibiting some real PTSD,
16:15even though I'd already turned off the whole system.
16:17So once again, the squirrels took the W,
16:19but as far as I'm concerned, they earned it.
16:21And I can't complain with how things turned out,
16:23because Rick buried all his extra nuts in the yard,
16:26Marty and Frank made up and rekindled their friendship,
16:29and Fat Gus got some long sought quality time
16:31with the bird feeder.
16:32So everyone was happy.
16:34Well, almost everyone.
16:52I'll see you later.
16:52I'll see you later.
16:58Let's go.
17:01I'll see you later.
17:02I'll see you later.
17:06After I'm Dassault who got murdered.
17:06I'm gonna be recognized as a writer for that radio.
17:07So, as you know,
17:10I'm so excited about the light that's back there.
17:10But I'm gonna be recognized as a mother,
17:11but you can't be recognized as a writer.
17:12And you can see you later.
17:12And there's a babysitter.
17:13And you can see you later.
17:17I'm gonna be recognized as a writer.
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