New South Wales police have fined two men for breaching coronavirus restrictions after they were startled by a deer while sunbaking naked on a beach south of Sydney and ran into the bush, becoming lost and needing to be rescued.
Police sent a helicopter to search for the pair, who were fined $1,000 for breaching public health orders amid a coronavirus outbreak that has seen residents in greater Sydney locked down and banned from travelling outside their local area.
It is unclear how the deer startled the men, and what made them dash into the bush to escape it.
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Authorities located a 30-year-old man naked and carrying a backpack on the walking track near Lady Wakehurst Drive in the Royal national park, about 40km south of Sydney’s city centre.
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.
The men told officers they had been on a nearby beach when they ran into bushland after being startled by a deer.
The men were taken to St George police station and issued the fines for the breach of public health orders that prohibit residents of greater Sydney from travelling outside the city.
The news also provided a diversion for many on Twitter, who had tuned into Monday morning’s NSW press conference to get an update on the state’s Covid-19 outbreak.
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.”
Police said 44 fines had been issued on Sunday for breaches of public health orders, with four of those also being $200 infringements for failing to wear a fitted face covering.
“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.”
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The warnings come after greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains and Wollongong were plunged into lockdown on Saturday, as authorities scramble to contain an outbreak of the more infectious Delta variant of Covid-19.
As part of the lockdown, residents can only leave their homes for necessary reasons, such as to buy food and groceries, for work or education if impossible at home, for medical reasons or for outdoor exercise and “outdoor recreation”.
Fuller was asked if sunbathing naked on a remote beach constituted outdoor recreation but his answer was interrupted by a man issuing him a “notice of cease and desist” and claiming he was the “prime creator of this Earth”.