Video Captures Storm Winds Lifting Dozens of Mattresses and Sending Them Flying Across a Giant Field
“A squadron of air mattresses.” That’s what local newscast KMGH-TV reported after a bystander filmed what may be a truly one-of-a-kind video.
It was a perfect storm, so to speak. Dozens of air mattresses had been placed in a grassy field near a runway at Denver’s old Stapleton Airport.
The stationary mattresses stayed, well, stationary — which is what we normally expect out of most mattresses — but a weather system began to move in.
As dark clouds loomed on the horizon, the wind began to pick up. And pick up it did… dozens of innocent air mattresses that had been minding their own business near former Runway 35.
Nearby resident Robb Manes found himself in the midst of the bizarre spectacle as he lounged by a pool adjacent to the field.
Manes said via YouTube post that he was, “hanging out at the pool when, suddenly, a mattress flew into the fenced-in area.”
“When a second and third one came in, we stood up, I grabbed my camera, and this is what we saw.”
And what they saw was remarkable. Mattresses scraping along the ground. Mattresses tumbling end over end. Mattresses soaring into the air.
Even mattresses gliding through the air like so many leaves on a blustery fall day — if those leaves were gray, inflated and made of heavy-duty flexible PVC.
Manes said, “Apparently there was a ‘Movie Night Under The Stars’ and in Denver, Colorado fashion, a storm blew in, and this is the result.”
According to KMGH-TV, “The air mattresses were set up for that night’s show at The Bed Cinema, an outdoor movie showing at the Denver park. But an afternoon storm blew in and the mattresses went airborne (or tried to).”
Several escaped mattresses even managed to float, climb or jump over the fence surrounding the pool, much to the delight of onlookers.
“There was a woman trying to a catch a mattress,” Manes told The Denver Post. “She looked at us and said, ‘This is a disaster.'”
“Although we felt really bad for the event people, we thought it was absolutely hilarious.”
A quick count tallied more than 40 rogue mattresses skittering across the field and presumably a nearby street.
So far there are no known injuries related to the flying, featherless beds.
Where the restive bedroom fugitives ended up is not known at this time.
Doubtless some granola-champing activists will take up their cause, perhaps urging them on to life on the wind-swept plains where they believe other mattresses live out their days in peace and tranquility away from the crushing weight of unconscious, pre-diabetic Westerners.
This (factual) report is dedicated to Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, whose writings on semi-anthropomorphic mattresses can be found in Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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