The hitchhiking robot known as hitchBOT was destroyed in Philadelphia over the weekend. And now we finally have footage of the jerk who did it. Vlogger Jesse Wellens posted the footage below to Snapchat. It shows a lone man in a sports jersey repeatedly kicking hitchBOT.
Judging from the timecode, the person kicks hitchBOT at 5:46 in the morning on Saturday August 1st. Without more context, it’s hard to say why this man destroyed the beloved robot. But this person clearly has some anger issues.
I think I know who will be first against the wall during the robot uprising.
Update: There’s a (probably fake) listing on Craigslist in Philly for hitchBOT.
I’m also getting lots of emails from people pointing out that Ed Bassmaster often wears an oversized number 12 Randall Cunningham jersey. Especially when he’s playing his alter-ego Always Teste.
It could be nothing, but Bassmaster and Jesse Wellens were both 1) The last people to record video of hitchBOT in one piece and 2) The people who acquired this supposed surveillance camera footage. If this was a prank, it would be a pretty shit one.
Update, again: There’s also the question of where the supposed security camera would be mounted. Looking at Google Street View, there’s no clear indication that there was a security camera from that vantage point as of June 2014. Which doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have been installed since then. But it’s one more red flag pointing to this being some kind of prank by Bassmaster and Wellens.
From Google Street View:
Update, August 4th: Now that the full “surveillance video” has been released, it’s clearly a fake. But it’s still unclear whether Bassmaster and Wellens destroyed hitchBOT.
Update, August 5th: Wellens and Bassmaster have posted a video showing how they faked the surveillance footage, but deny they had anything to do with hitchBOT’s destruction.