An ugly scene at the 6BC Botanical Garden

Several readers/residents passed along an email that's circulating among garden members about an ugly incident Sunday in the 6BC Botanical Garden on Sixth Street between Avenue B and Avenue C.

A garden member showed up around 5 p.m. to work on her plot... she unlocked the gate. Several people came into the space upon the arrival of the gardener, including "a tall young man who said hi" who sat at the wire table in the back.

Here's more via the email to garden members:

Two other guys, a young man with a teenager sitting by the pond, started talking to me about what a treasure the garden is and we had a short conversation. While talking to them I turn, look around, and I see the first guy sitting at the wire table still, but completely naked and masturbating. I tell the two men I was chatting with ... "I must call 911." I did panic a bit, because at this point a good number of people were walking around in the garden.

Now the naked man is standing up and walking toward me, touching himself and growling, talking dirty. I start screaming “sir you must leave, we are calling the police.” He doesn’t care and honestly he seems very high. The gentlemen at this point reassured me they are staying with me while I call the police and as long as needed. The naked man is approaching and I start walking toward the exit, telling people to leave. I was hoping to lock him inside, but I couldn’t, too many people were still inside as well.

According to the email, the man walked outside the garden, turned west and headed to Avenue B. The woman, accompanied by the two other men, waited for the police from Grape and Grain next door.

The naked man left his clothes in the garden, so with the police I walked back there to show them where he was. Going through the pockets they found his phone and his ID: I recognized him in the photo. Something else was in his pockets, which I found very scary: a star-head screwdriver that can become a weapon in the wrong hands.

The email ends with a note about what an oasis of peace and harmony the garden is, though: "We are still in New York City and some crazy people walk around..."

The email did not contain a description of the man. We don't know if the police made an arrest in this incident. He probably wasn't too difficult to find given that he was naked and the police had his phone and ID.