The naked man who broke into a Country Club Estates home in Slidell early Monday morning was identified and arrested for simple burglary Wednesday, according to Slidell police.

Keith Potter, 50, 107 Dees Lane, Luling was identified by a family member Tuesday night after a photo of Potter was released to the news media, said Capt. Kevin Foltz, Slidell Police Department spokesman. The home that Potter broke into had a video surveillance system and Potter was caught on tape breaking into the house while totally naked.

Why Potter was naked, and how he ended up in Country Clubs Estate is still a mystery to the police. During questioning, Potter told police that the last thing he remembers is going to sleep at his home in Luling Saturday around 10 p.m. He told police before he went to sleep, he had consumed a few beers and had taken prescription medicine for anxiety that belonged to someone else. He also told police that he suffers from a medical condition that combined with the alcohol and pills may have led to his erratic behavior.

potter

Potter told detectives that he may have taken his wife’s Nissan Altima to get to Slidell, but he doesn’t remember. His wife’s car has not been found.

“He said he doesn’t know what happened to the car, or how he ended up in Slidell,” Foltz said.

What is known is that Potter showed up in front of a house in Country Club Estates at 1 a.m. Monday. The video shows a naked Potter washing himself off with a garden hose in the driveway. Then he walked into the back yard where he broke several windows, crawled into the house and proceeded to ransack the house. He was inside the house for three hours, and during that time, he cooked himself a meal, had a couple of drinks and showered again in the bathroom. Potter told police he does not know how he managed to disable the home’s alarm system, or why he ransacked the house.

The homeowner, a 61-year-old woman, was visiting a relative in New Orleans at the time of the break in. When she returned Monday morning and saw the broken windows, she called police and gave them the video

Potter told police he does remember breaking the windows. He said that he wondered if he would get caught, but then he decided he didn’t care and went into the house.

Potter finally left through the front door after wrapping himself in a bed sheet, which, according to police, was the only item he stole from the house.

At this point, Foltz said police couldn’t prove or disprove that Potter was intoxicated or suffering from a mental condition at the time of the burglary. Potter told detectives he went to a hospital after the incident, to be treated for his medical condition, but the hospital papers he gave to Slidell police show that he was treated only for minor abrasions he got from breaking into the house.

Police Chief Freddy Drennan said he is glad that Potter was arrested, because people in Country Club Estates were worried that the naked burglar was still in the area.

After Potter was booked with simple burglary, he was taken to St. Tammany Jail under a $20,000 bond.