The drink had all of the hallmarks of a beverage sensation. Striking design, daring font, and the punchy title Release. But inside, every bottle was full of urine allegedly discarded by Amazon supply drivers and picked up from plastic bottles by the aspect of the highway.

That didn’t cease Amazon from itemizing it on the market, although. Release even attained primary bestseller standing within the “Bitter Lemon” class. It was created by Oobah Butler for a brand new documentary, The Great Amazon Heist, which airs on Channel 4 within the UK as we speak.

Butler is a journalist, presenter, and famend puller of stunts—he’s in all probability most well-known for turning his shed in a London backyard into the number one ranked restaurant on Tripadvisor. The Great Amazon Heist begins with him infiltrating an Amazon distribution middle in Coventry with a hidden digicam and chatting with staff who complain of foot and again ache, doubtlessly harmful working circumstances, and near-constant surveillance. Butler spends his first day unloading a baking scorching truck with no working fan or air con.

Amazon spokesperson James Drummond says “nothing is more important” than worker security and well-being and that the corporate offers protecting clothes and footwear and has “dedicated health and safety teams on site.”

Butler occurs to be current throughout a hiring spree on the Coventry warehouse. At the time, staff had been attempting to realize union recognition, and the GMB union has since accused Amazon of intentionally hiring a whole lot of additional employees to scupper the vote. Amazon denies this.

He is acknowledged inside days and so resorts to interviewing supply drivers, who inform him that they’re penalized for gradual deliveries to the extent that they must urinate in bottles as a result of they don’t have time to seek out wherever to cease for toilet breaks.

Drivers urinating in bottles has been reported in the past, however what wasn’t identified is that some declare in addition they get penalized for having these urine-filled bottles of their truck after they return to the warehouse. (Drummond denies this and says Amazon drivers obtain reminders to take common breaks on the Amazon Delivery app). To keep away from penalties, they find yourself discarding the bottles by the aspect of the highway. Butler searches the roadsides close to Amazon warehouses from Coventry to New York to Los Angeles and most of the time strikes liquid gold.

From there, it’s laughably easy for Butler to get Release listed on the market on Amazon, with only a few checks and balances in place to make sure the product he’s promoting is secure and authorized. “Releasing the drink was surprisingly easy,” Butler informed WIRED. “I thought that the food and drinks licensing would stop me from listing it, so I started it out in this Refillable Pump Dispenser category. Then the algorithm moved it into drinks.”

At one level, he’s even contacted by an Amazon consultant able to deal with the packaging, transport, and logistics via the Fulfillment by Amazon program. (No members of the general public had been really despatched driver urine; as an alternative Butler corralled a bunch of associates into making the purchases.) When he noticed the product listed on the market, Butler felt “initially really excited and found it very funny,” he says. “Then when real people started trying to buy the product, I felt a bit scared.”