Topless Gardener Has Town In Tizzy

Carolina Kat Sat Mar 20, 2010 4:58 pm

Topless gardener has Colo. town in a tizzy

Associated Press

Posted: Saturday, Mar. 20, 2010

BOULDER, Colo. - A woman gardening wearing only a yellow thong and pink gloves has brought neighborhood complaints and new rules from a housing authority in Colorado.

Boulder Housing Partners plans to amend its rules so that tenants cover up when outside. Several passers-by told Boulder police earlier this week that 52-year-old Catharine Pierce was topless while tending to her yard. Last year, she was threatened with eviction for gardening wearing only pasties and a thong.

Robert Pierce said he'll fight changes that would keep his wife from gardening outside topless, which is legal under state and city law.

Boulder Housing Partners Executive Director Betsey Martens didn't return a phone call Friday seeking details.

She told the Daily Camera newspaper that people have complained for years about the couple often going outside wearing only thong underwear.

Robert Pierce said the new rules wouldn't discourage the couple. "We'll stay the way we have to stay," he said.

The City Council is scheduled in April to consider expanding the city's anti-nudity ordinance, but a draft proposal to make it an offense for women to go topless in public was removed.