Man Arrested for Being Naked in a Cemetery Tree

Now this is a classic Key West tale:

October 4, 2007

FOR RELEASE AT WILL

A 28-year-old Washington man was arrested yesterday for indecent exposure after he was found naked in a tree in the Key West Cemetery.

Loren Alan Bernhardt was first spotted by contract workers, who alerted Cemetery Sexton Russell Brittain and called the Key West Police around 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

When officers arrived, they ordered him out of the tree. After hesitating for a moment, he climbed down and got dressed.

"The tree he was in is a well-liked tree," Brittain said of the large ficus that sits on the corner of Fourth and Laurel Streets in the cemetery. "People like to hang out in it."

Brittain said he regularly checks the tree for occupants.

"I have had to pull several couples out of trees," he laughed. "We get some strange ones in here sometimes. We see a lot."

Bernhardt was transported to the Monroe County Detention Center without further incident.