Two men were fined by police after breaching coronavirus restrictions by sunbathing naked.
The pair were caught after startling a deer while catching some rays on a beach with nothing on.
The men ran into bushes near the beach to escape the deer and were caught after they had to be rescued.
They were caught after New South Wales police sent a helicopter to search for them in a national park, around 40km south of the city centre in Sydney, Australia, The Guardian reports.
Residents in greater Sydney have been under lockdown and banned from travelling outside their local area due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Authorities confirmed they had found a 30-year-old man naked and carrying a backpack on the walking track near Lady Wakehurst Drive in the Royal national park and, after a further search, they were also able to find a 49-year-old man, who was “partially clothed” according to a statement from NSW police.
(Image: 9News)
It is not clear how or why the deer startled the men, and what made them run into the bush to get away from it.
They confessed to the officers that they had been on a nearby beach when they ran into bushland after being startled by the animal.
The men were taken to St George police station and issued the fines for breaking lockdown rules.
The news also provided a comical diversion for people on Twitter, who had tuned into Monday morning’s NSW press conference to get an update on the state’s Covid-19 outbreak.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, told reporters about the sunbathers at the press conference, saying it was “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 said.
“But, again, they both received a $1,000 fine. Now, it’s only a small percentage of the New South Wales people that are not following the health guidelines, but I can assure you, if you breach the health orders or the guidelines, you will be punished.”
(Image: Getty Images)
Police said a total of 44 fines had been handed out on Sunday for breaches of public health orders, with four of those also being $200 infringements for failing to wear proper face coverings.
“Police have received hundreds of calls from the public over the weekend reporting potential public health order breaches and would like to thank the vast majority of the community for their cooperation with the new rules,” the commissioner added.
Parts of greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong were plunged into lockdown on Saturday, in an urgent attempt by the authorities to contain an outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant of Covid-19.
The lockdown rules mean residents are only allowed to leave their homes for essential reasons, such as to buy food and groceries, for work or education if they can’t work from home, for medical reasons or for outdoor exercise and recreation.
