Seagulls ‘stealing drug stashes’

And other stories from the stranger side of life

A seagull
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Britain’s seagulls are pinching “stashes” from drug users, said Metro. There are increasing reports of the seaside birds “swooping down to make off with drug-users stashes – in particular, a group of synthetic cannabinoids known as ‘spice’”. The drug can cause “euphoria, talkativeness, paranoia and nausea” in people but “surprisingly enough, there’s been very little research into the synthetic narcotics’ effects on seagulls”, quipped the paper.

Lottery winner couldn’t eat his kebab

A bus driver who “popped out to buy some bread” ended up with the mixed blessing of “a winning £1million National Lottery scratch-card and a cold doner kebab”, reported ITV News. Steve Goodwin, from West Devon, bought the scratch-card as he awaited his takeaway doner. However, after discovering his big win, he was too emotional to eat the snack. “I sat in the kitchen and tried to eat my kebab, but I couldn’t,” he admitted. “In the end, I just put it in the bin.”

Most miserable country named

Zimbabwe is the most miserable country in the world according to the annual Misery Index. As it faced “soaring inflation”, the east African country beat “war-torn” Ukraine, Venezuela and Syria to the top spot, noted The Telegraph. The UK was in 129th place and the least miserable nation in the world was found to be Switzerland. Steve Hanke, professor of Applied Economics at John Hopkins University, compiles the list each year.

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Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.