Police rescue spooked nude sunbathers from Australian forest

SYDNEY (AP) — Police have fined two men who had to be rescued from an Australian forest after they were startled by a deer while nude sunbathing on a beach and became lost.

The men called for help about 6 p.m. Sunday after they became lost in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, a police statement said Monday.

“Unbelievably, we saw two men sunbaking naked on a beach on the South Coast,” Police Commissioner Mick Fuller told reporters. “They were startled by a deer, ran into the national … park and got lost."

Their rescue involved police aircraft, the State Emergency Service and ambulance officers.

The men, aged 30 and 49, were fined 1,000 Australian dollars ($759) each for breaching a stay-home pandemic order that restricted them to Sydney, police said.

The younger man was found “naked and carrying a backpack” while the older man was “partially clothed," the police statement said.

Fuller described the pair as “idiots.”

“Clearly putting people at risk by leaving home without a proper reason, … then getting lost in the national park and diverting important resources away from the health operation, I think they should be embarrassed,” Fuller said.

The temperature range on Sunday at Otford, the town nearest to where the men were lost, was 3 degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit) to 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit).

The pair were among 44 people fined by police on Sunday for breaching a public health order after Sydney began a two-week lockdown on Friday due to a new COVID-19 cluster.