If you didn’t tell me where this story took place, I would have sworn up and down that it happened in Florida. I mean, it’s such a “Florida Man” story.
As it turned out, the two guys in the story were not from Florida, or even the United States – they were in Australia. But for National Park fans, it’s about as weird and wacky as it gets.
First off, some background information. As excellent as Australia has been keeping coronavirus at bay, the Delta Variant, which is much more contagious, has caused hot spots to flare up. With that, New South Wales, which includes Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains and Wollongong, among other places, is currently under a 2-week lockdown, due to nearly 30 new cases detected in the state in a 24 hour period.
According to the Washington Post, New South Wales police recently fined two men for breaching the state’s coronavirus restrictions. Apparently, they were startled by a deer while sunbathing naked on a beach south of Sydney, and ran into the bush. They subsequently became lost and needed to be rescued via helicopter.
They were each fined $1000 (U.S $750) for breaching public health orders.
No one is sure how the deer startled the men, nor why they ran into the bush to escape it. But according to reports, authorities located one of the men, age 30, naked and carrying a backpack, on the walking track near Lady Wakehurst Drive in the Royal national park. It’s located about 40km south of Sydney’s city center.
A while later, they were also able to find a 49-year-old man, who was “partially clothed” as per a statement from NSW police.
The men told the officers they had been on a nearby beach when they ran into bushland after being startled by a deer.
The two were taken to St George police station, where they were issued fines for breaching public health orders that prohibit residents of greater Sydney from traveling outside the city.
NSW’s daily press conference that gives updates on the state’s COVID outbreak included said story. During the press conference, NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller said that it’s “difficult to legislate against idiots.”
“Clearly putting people at risk by leaving home without a proper reason, and I think then on top of that, getting lost in the national park and diverting important resources away from the health operation — I think they should be embarrassed,” Fuller continued.
Indeed.
If nothing else, it gave the Twitterverse something to laugh about.
In the interests of public morale, I demand one story like this every day for the duration of lockdown. #covid19nsw
— Adam Liaw (@adamliaw) June 28, 2021
If I had a buck for everytime I…
— TBritt (@CBR_Britton) June 28, 2021
Seems they were trying to buck the trend and ended up losing a lot of doe.#groan #dadjoke
— Marc Gatland (@marcgatland) June 28, 2021
it would be very funny if a deer appeared on screen at the press conference right now, scaring the premier, health minister and police commissioner into the bushes. just saying
— Naaman Zhou (@naamanzhou) June 28, 2021
This was my question, too:
Just wondering where they had their mobile phones to seek police assistance?
— 💧scott james (@Scott1Baggs) June 28, 2021
And this was in my head, as well:
Two men of a certain age “sunbathing” naked….right.
— Bradley (@boorad0) June 28, 2021
And best of all, the nod to the Auslan (Australian Sign Language) interpreter who was assigned to the press conference:
next level signing
1. while sunbathing naked
2. startled by
3. a deer pic.twitter.com/xO0QqJ15sQ— 💯 points of 🆔 (@ernmalleyscat) June 28, 2021
Enjoy your day, travel friends…
Feature Photo: Rexness / flickr
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#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask #getyourCOVIDvaccine
#stayhomeifyou’reunderlockdown
#dontrunintothebushifyou’renakedandscaredbyadeer
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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