'It’s Definitely an Anomaly to Come Across Two Individuals Highly Intoxicated, Naked and Covered in Mud'

I wonder if that state trooper was choking back tears as he fondly reminisced on his findings the other morning? Even on my wildest nights in Western New York I never quite took anything to this level.

Authorities made no arrests, but they still were scratching their heads Monday over a Sunday morning incident that led to the discovery of two highly intoxicated naked men completely covered in mud in the Town of Lewiston.

One of the men was so drunk, law enforcement sources said, that he registered a preliminary 0.27 percent blood-alcohol level on a roadside screening test.

State police at Niagara and the Lewiston police, after rescuing both men and taking them to the hospital, learned that they apparently had gone to the St. John de LaSalle Carnival in Niagara Falls and afterwards decided to dance naked in the woods.

“It’s definitely an anomaly to come across two individuals highly intoxicated, naked and covered in mud,” Trooper William Persinger of the State Police at Niagara said. “They took the St. John’s Fest and made it a Woodstock event.”

The incident began at about 5:45 a. m. Sunday, when the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office reported that a naked man apparently covered with tattoos was standing on Saunders Settlement Road, near Tuscarora Road, in the Town of Lewiston. The tattoos later turned out to be heavy cakes of mud.

Troopers Persinger and Ryan Burns, along with Lewiston Police Officer Todd Davis, found Clayton D. Holtz, 22, of Hamilton, Ont., sitting on the roadside. An extensive interview with Holtz led police to realize that a second naked man might be in the nearby woods or fields.

Persinger then found the second man, covered in mud, lying in a ditch about 100 yards north of the road. He was identified as Brandon A. Thomas, 23, of Hamilton.

“Brandon was passed out, lying face down in the mud, and he wasn’t getting up any time soon,” Persinger said. “We had to physically drag him out of the mud puddle.”