SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - Police in Idaho Falls said on Tuesday they have told a 34-year-old man to stop wearing a bunny suit in public after residents complained that he has been frightening children. Police warned Idaho Falls resident William Falkingham after a woman said she saw him dressed in the costume, peeking at her young son from behind a tree and pointing his finger like a gun, according to a police report.
An investigation of the sighting led officers to question other neighbors, "who expressed that they were greatly disturbed by Falkingham and his bunny suit," the report said.
Neighbors also reported that Falkingham occasionally wears a tutu with the bunny suit, police said in a statement.
Falkingham told police that while he "enjoys wearing the suit," he understood the concerns, and that he could be cited as a public nuisance for that type of behavior, Idaho Falls Police Department spokeswoman Joelyn Hansen said. Falkingham could not be reached for comment.
Neighbor Deborah Colson defended Falkingham in a telephone interview with Reuters, saying he has an eccentric but otherwise harmless habit of dressing up in costume and making appearances on his own property.
"He's got the bunny outfit, a cowboy suit and a ballerina dress but you don't see him except where he's tripping through his backyard," she said.
Colson said she worried that news of Falkingham's at-home habits might make him a target of fear and scorn.
"He's never done anything wrong but wear his little suits in the background," she said. "He's got a strange lifestyle at home but we all do weird things at home. It makes me so sad: people don't even do anything and they get laughed at."
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)