Naked man arrested for burglary at Missouri park. He was hiding under a desk, sheriff says

A southwest Missouri man whom authorities were seeking was taken to jail after a park ranger found him hiding inside a state park office, naked.

It was unclear how he got inside.

And hours before he was located, a manager at Prairie State Park near Mindenmines mentioned that the man was acting strange.

The incident started off as a search for a missing person.

The Barton County Sheriff’s Office detailed what happened in a news release on Facebook.

The Sheriff’s Office said the park manager called 911 just before noon Tuesday to report that a man at the park was looking for his missing wife.

He allegedly said he left her at a campsite at around 4 a.m. and returned at 8 a.m. and noticed she was gone.

The park manager told the Sheriff’s Office the man said his wife was missing, but he stated he “did not want to have any interaction with law enforcement,” the news release said. He then left in a vehicle, and park employees didn’t report seeing him again after that.

Deputies arrived and joined park employees in the search for the man and woman.

Their search in the park was unsuccessful, but the Sheriff’s Office said two cellphones along a creek and a bicycle on a walking trail were found. The bicycle had previously been seen in the back of a truck at the campsite, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Numerous agencies were called in to help with the search, including a rescue and recovery team, state troopers and a tracking K-9.

Authorities thought they saw the man near the park’s visitor center at around 2:40 p.m. and searched the inside and outside of the building, but the Sheriff’s Office said it appeared the man might have fled into the prairie.

Later that afternoon, a police officer in Liberal reported that a woman was picked up inside a hay barn “some distance away” from the state park and was taken to a convenience store. Police found her and brought her to the state park for questioning. The Sheriff’s Office determined she was one of the missing people from the campsite.

Not long after, the man was located as well.

Just after 4 p.m., the park manager told the Sheriff’s Office she went inside the visitor center to get something from her office, and she spotted the man hiding under a desk.

Rather than confronting the man, the Sheriff’s Office said, she pretended not to see him, left the office, locked him inside the building and notified authorities.

The sheriff, deputies and police officers went inside the building and found the man still hiding under a desk. He wasn’t wearing any clothes, the Sheriff’s Office noted.

He was taken into custody without incident and was identified as Peter F. Gilbreth, a 49-year-old man from Joplin.

Gilbreth was arrested on suspicion of burglary and was taken to Barton County Memorial Hospital for an evaluation “due to impairment,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

No injuries were reported.

Gilbreth was then taken to the county jail and placed on a 24-hour hold.

The Sheriff’s Office said charges are not being sought against the woman who was found.

Missouri State Park Rangers are investigating.