Community reacts to naked man seen walking in downtown Burlington this week

By Sid Bewlay

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    BURLINGTON, Vermont (WPTZ) — The weather is getting warmer and more people are out and about in downtown Burlington — but there’s someone turning heads and not leaving a lot to the imagination.

A man has been walking around the city, naked, all week long.

He’s been seen walking around St Paul Street, the Church Street Marketplace, and down by the waterfront all while wearing no clothing. At times, the man has been seen with a selfie-stick.

One man from Swanton, who identified himself as Shalik, said he was in the city for work on Thursday and said finds it “mindboggling.”

NBC5 interviewed the nude man on Church Street on Thursday afternoon. He identified himself only as Joseph, and said he’s doing it for a personal reason.

“I’m kind of reinventing my life, if you will, to create the masterpiece, which is the rest of my life vision,” said Joseph. “So, I’m thinking, what are my top three priorities? If I could dream of any kind of life that I want? And yes, going nude in public was one of my top three.”

However, this isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened in Burlington or even in other cities in Vermont.

Keltie Armstrong, a South Burlington resident said she saw Jason walking around this week, but he’s not the first nude man going for a stroll in Burlington.

“It was about a year ago, and I was having lunch on lower St Paul [street] with a friend and she said, ‘I think you might want to turn around.’ So I turned around and he was strolling down the street carrying his little grocery bag,” said Armstrong.

However, seeing a naked person walking around a city center still catches people off guard.

“This is a big city! Where I live in Swanton, I’m on country roads,” said Shalik. “Of course, I’m not going to see that because I’m on a country road, but when I come to the city to Doordash, man, I don’t want to see that!”

The display is technically not against the law.

It’s legal to be naked in public in Vermont, as long as the person doesn’t disrobe in public or harass anyone.

“I think it’s pushing the limits a little much,” said Armstrong. “You know, I could care less, but there’s a lot of people walking around with little kids and I’m not so sure it’s a good tourist attraction to have people walking around with nothing on.”

Joseph said he doesn’t feel the same.

“Personally, I don’t think if a child saw me in passing, I don’t think that it would cause any damage or trauma,” he said.

In a statement given to NBC5, the Burlington Police Department said it’s aware of the situation but has not made any contact with the man yet as no state law or city ordinance has been violated.

However, the department added that the city of Burlington has an ordinance that “no person can go about naked within any of the city parks.”

If they do, BPD said the fine is $50.

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