April 11, 2008 | Funny Bits

Naked cop gets his man

New Zealand Constable Tom Taylor was off duty and naked, but that didn't stop him from taking on a car thief in the middle of the night.

"My wife woke up and thought a car out in the street had stopped or run out of petrol,"  Taylor explained. But after a moment he realized it was his wife's car that was being stolen. He jumped into action!

"By the time I'd got some jocks and shorts on and running shoes he'd have been gone." He grabbed a flashlight and chased after the would-be car thief.

And though his wife, fully clothed, was able to grab the bad guy a short time later, he managed to get away when the naked copper came into view. He may have been frightened by Taylor's skin-colored police baton.

The man was later picked up by police as he was hitch-hiking north of the town of Balclutha.

"His words were, 'the angry naked man wouldn't listen, he just got more and more angry with me'," Mr Taylor said.

He's just lucky Taylor didn't beat him with his stick!