Post Office Cancels Nudity : Nudists Win Mail Service but Must Cover Up for It

After 16 months without service, residents of a nudist resort will start getting mail delivered again--if they wear clothes to the mail box or stay away while carriers make their rounds.

The decision by Tampa Postmaster Robert Davis ends a U.S. Postal Service battle with Paradise Lakes, a suburban “clothing optional” complex of 239 units.

Davis said mail service will resume Aug. 3.

Also, as part of the compromise, tall shrubbery will be planted around mail boxes to impede a carrier’s view.

Tuesday’s ruling overturns one by Lutz Postmaster Henry Thompson, who stopped service last year, saying the sight of naked bodies was offensive to mailmen. Thompson acknowledged that he never actually polled his carriers, but he made a visit to the resort’s cluster mail boxes.

“Members came up to me in their ‘clothes-optional’ method,” he said. “I saw naked people washing their cars and mowing the lawns. I told the manager, ‘We got a problem.’ ”

After that, residents had to drive to the post office for their mail.

The nudists protested with letters to then Postmaster General William F. Bolger in Washington, leading to the compromise.

The route may go to carrier Nick Cox, 21, who said, “Someone’s got to do it.”