That’s Outrageous

SMELLY PROTEST

US Customs and Border Protection staff near the southern border with Mexico are coming up against an unlikely foe: a flock of some 300 vultures. Legislation that forbids the killing of these migratory birds means the vultures roost where they see fit. But their excretions – including the birds’ corrosive vomit – seem to have damaged a customs radio tower in Texas. Online commenters claim the birds are protesting the mistreatment of many migrants detained at the US border. Whatever their motivation, the vultures sure know how to make a stink.

BED ON ARRIVAL

Quality sleep is important, and investing in a good mattress can help. But in 2016, New Yorker Karan Bir recognised a potential loophole – mattress returns. For over a year, he slept on a rotating series of free trial mattresses, sourced from online companies with money-back guarantees. Bir realised he could hack the system by simply returning his purchases within 100 days. By the time he bid a bed adieu, he’d ordered another to take its place.

Enough brands offered refunds that he could go years without actually paying for one. He gave up after he moved to a building without lifts, however – lugging a mattress up or down several flights of stairs each time wasn’t something he was willing to lose sleep over.

MELONHEADS

Police in the US state of Virginia released footage of two men accused of robbing a convenience store with hollowedout watermelons on their heads, after they managed to elude authorities thanks to their ‘brilliant’ disguises. Candice Wendt, a customer at the shop where the robbery took place, thought the disguises fell in that thin line between stupid and clever. “The amount of work that you have to do to actually hollow out a watermelon to stick it on your head, I think, is kind of crazy,” she told the media.