That’s Outrageous!

ALL MIXED UP

Jonathan Nichols got a lot more than he’d bargained for when he picked an easyto-memorise mobile phone number in 2012. In the following weeks, the Seattle public-interest lawyer began receiving suggestive bikini selfies from strange women and offers to test-drive Ferraris. After a flurry of birthday greetings on the wrong day, the puzzled 30-something worked out that his phone number had previously belonged to Grammy Award-winning rap artist Sir Mix-ALot. After the incident was reported in a local paper, Nichols found he’d earned a nickname: courtroom colleagues now call him ‘Mix Jr.’

CRUEL INTENTIONS

Gone are the innocent days of being asked whether your refrigerator is running. Recently, a prank caller convinced staff at a fast-food restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, to smash all of the restaurant’s windows. Posing as a fire-suppression company, the unnamed joker claimed that gas pressure within the building was rising and that shattering the glass was the only way to prevent an explosion. The hoax has since spread, with copycats targeting fast-food outlets across the US. Seems like a good time to invest in caller ID.

BROKEN TELEPHONE

Michael Saba and Christina Lee want to clear the air: they didn’t steal your mobile phone. More than a dozen concerned parties searching for lost or stolen phones have been mistakenly led to the couple’s house in Atlanta, Georgia, by phonetracking apps. The reason isn’t entirely clear. It may be partly because Saba and Lee are the only internet users in their immediate area, and the imprecise GPS employed by phone-finding apps sends searchers to the only spot of internet activity: their home. So far, no one’s got a solution. As Lee put it, “There’s no troubleshooting guide for this problem.”