‘Naked Cowboy’ rides into Sarasota for spring break after being arrested in Daytona Beach

As legend has it, there used to be a strange law on the books in Sarasota.

Apparently it was illegal for a person to sing anywhere in public while wearing a bathing suit, and if that law still stands, then Robert Burck may be in trouble with the police for the second time in five days.

Naked Cowboy, outlaw.

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Burck, known around the world as the “Naked Cowboy,” made his annual spring appearance at Siesta Beach on Tuesday. Not turning as many heads as you might think, he wore his trademark cowboy boots, cowboy hat and white underwear briefs, all of which had “Naked Cowboy” written across them.

He posed for pictures and walked around singing and strumming his guitar. OK, so maybe he didn’t break any crazy Sarasota laws after all, and technically he was wearing underwear and not a bathing suit, but he was arrested on Saturday in Daytona Beach.

More:'The Naked Cowboy' arrested for panhandling at Daytona's Bike Week

Burck, 50, was performing his routine at Bike Week in Daytona Beach on Saturday afternoon when he was arrested on charges of aggressive panhandling and resisting an officer without violence. He spent the night in the Volusia County Jail and was released the following day.

The arrest report stated he was taking photos with people approximately 10 feet away from the front door of a commercially zoned property, and that is how he violated the city’s panhandling ordinance. The ordinance reportedly “prohibits panhandling within 20 feet in any direction from any entrance or exit of commercially zoned property.”

“It was the greatest experience of my life,” Burck said. “All I do is go out and work and draw attention to what I do. It could be construed as something negative, but I’ve seen the 10,000 comments. I do exactly what you are seeing here, and if anybody gives me a problem, I walk away from it.

“They (the police) are shining light on what I’m doing.”

The Sarasota Sheriff’s Office deputies on horseback chatted with Burck, with one of them saying, “We love you here. We like seeing you every year.”

Still, not everyone was happy to see him. One of the small babies he posed with immediately began crying, and a spring breaker said to one of his buddies: “What a doofus. All it is is white underwear with ‘Naked Cowboy’ written across it.”

Burck has been coming to Sarasota for the last two decades, originally because he had a friend from Cincinnati who lived here. He is mostly known for performing in Times Square, but the pandemic has all but kept him away from people in New York for a year.

“It’s been a whole year of no one paying attention to me,” he said. “For the last year I’ve been working hard, but I don’t have the thrill of everyone wanting pictures of me. Now I’m back and then the police (in Daytona Beach) tell me I have to stop.”

Burck said he has been arrested at least 30 times over the years as the “Naked Cowboy” and is not fazed by his most recent brush with the law. In fact, nothing seems to faze him.

“You think there is anything stupider I can do than this?” he said.