Naked Cowboy arrested while performing in Florida
8 March 2021, 17:04
Robert Burck is widely known for wearing only white briefs, boots and a cowboy hat while playing a brightly coloured guitar.
A Times Square performer known as the Naked Cowboy was arrested while attending Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Court records show Robert Burck, 51, who is widely known for wearing only white briefs, boots and a cowboy hat while playing a brightly coloured guitar, was arrested on Saturday while performing at the annual event on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Burck, who is a regular at Bike Week, was arrested on a misdemeanour resisting arrest charge and cited for panhandling.
The panhandling citation was given after officers saw people tucking dollar notes into Burck’s guitar after taking photographs.
Burck then refused to follow directions from a police officer and pulled away from her, according to an arrest report.
When the Daytona Beach police officer redirected Burck against a patrol car, the headstock of his guitar broke, according to the arrest report.
The headstock is the part of the guitar at the end that houses the pegs used for tuning the instrument.
“The defendant began taking photographs with multiple bystanders, while bystanders placed United States currency inside the guitar’s centre sound hole in the area of Main St/S Fern Ln, which was approximately 10 feet away from the front door of a commercially zoned property at 810 Main St,” arresting officers wrote in a report.
“The defendant’s actions violate Daytona Beach City Ordinance 66-1 (Panhandling),” an arresting officer wrote in a report.
Burck, from Woodside, New York, was released from jail on Sunday morning following a first appearance hearing, Volusia County court records show.
Video on Burck’s Facebook page, The Naked Cowboy, showed him performing and taking pictures with fans on Saturday morning.
A video posted to YouTube shows a police officer attempting to get a handcuffed Burck, whose guitar was still hanging from a strap around his neck, into a patrol car.
