Naked woman caught on camera ripping and throwing flowers

Photo: Mark Nowak

A strange sight captured in Kelowna's City Park Friday afternoon.

Mark Nowak sent us a photo of a completely naked woman seen pulling flowers from a flower bed in front of the City Park Sign on Abbott St.

"I was dropping my daughter off for work downtown just before 5 p.m. when we saw this woman heading right for the planter."

Nowak says he has no idea what was going on aside from an obvious mental health situation. "It's sad but I was scared for my daughter. I have pieces of that flower in my car."

Nowak says RCMP were on scene quickly to deal with the naked flower tosser and tells Castanet that he has seen some bizarre things in Kelowna's downtown area.

"I told my daughter, if you see anything like that again you run the other way. Unfortunately, people in that state are unpredictable and I worry about my daughter's safety."

Earlier this year, the commanding officer of the RCMP in the Southeast District of BC called on Interior Health to expand the region's Police and Crisis Team, which partners a nurse with an officer for mental health calls.

One such team already operates in Kelowna, but Chief Superintendent Brad Haugli said he'd like to see it expanded, as the region's officers have seen a 21 per cent jump in mental heath calls since 2016.

In response, IH said they have no plans to expand the service in the near future.

"It's not the most effective use of scarce health-care resources, especially when we know there's such a significant demand for mental health services for the whole population," said Karen Bloemink, vice-president of clinical operations.