Nude runners in Boulder, Colorado, this Halloween could get tickets but no harsher penalties, the police chief said.

If the Naked Pumpkin Run tradition is revived on the Pearl Street Mall this year, runners caught wearing nothing but pumpkins on their heads will get municipal tickets for violating the city's new public nudity law and may incur fines.

Before the city council passed an ordinance in April prohibiting nudity, police issued state public indecency and indecent exposure tickets for offences like streaking. These carried possibly severe penalties, including having to register as a sex offender.

When hundreds of nude runners took the streets in 2008, 12 of them were ticketed under the state law and had to fight the sex-offence penalty in court. None of them had to register as sex offenders, but as a result of the scare, runners wore clothes last year.

Even with the new ordinance, it's unclear whether any nude runners will participate on Halloween.

I should imagine that streaking at the end of October will mean there's not a lot to cause offense!

Now that's what I call frightening!

The original was here