CA Nudists Charged With Stealing Water for Swimming Pool

LOS GATOS, Calif.—Hey, California residents: Bummed that you can't water your lawn even as you watch it turn brown? Put out that you now have to ask for a glass of water with your meal in restaurants? Well, before throwing a pity party, consider the plight of the state's nudists. The Lupin Lodge has been around for nearly a century, first as a winery before the U.S. "went dry" in 1921 thanks to the Eighteenth Amendment, and then, beginning in 1935, as a naturist (nudist) resort on 110 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains. And now its owners are in legal trouble, brought on by the state's drought, now in its second year. "For generations, farmers and other rural Californians—even nude ones—have enjoyed unlimited access to water flowing through their lands," noted Washington Post reporter Michael E. Miller. "But now the spigot has been stoppered." A good portion of the "water flowing through [Lupin Lodge's] lands" comes from Hendry's Creek, whose well-being is managed by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD). According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office, Lupin Lodge's owners, Glyn and Lori Kay Stout, asked several times to be allowed to install temporary water lines from the creek to the Lodge to keep its swimming pool, hot tub and water tank (used for fighting fires) operational. They were always refused access, so according to the charges leveled against them and two associates—felony conspiracy to commit trespassing for the purpose of injuring a property right—they just ran the lines anyway and stole the water. According to authorities, the Stouts drove on roads the MROSD had closed in order to reclaim the forest, which had been a dumping ground for old cars, cut down trees and brush that prevented access to the creek and other nearby water sources, and by using multiple water lines to siphon off an estimated four gallons per minute, deprived local wildlife of its drinking water. For his part, Glyn Stout claims a right to tap into the free-flowing water. "The stream originates on the adjacent property and flows through our property, through our water system," he told The Post's Mitchell. "There is no other place the water can go. We are the first human users of the water and have been for the last 80 years." The defendants face up to three years in prison if convicted of the charges. (BTW, if any adult industry members are considering visiting the lodge, they should be aware of one of its rules: "All alcohol use and public eroticism is banned.")