---------------- Area Residents Assail Rainbow Family Antics -------------------
"Visitors Camped Free, Went Nude in Public"
By The Associated Press
Delta County residents say the activities of the Rainbow Family were anything
but restrained and respectful.
Moreover, residents are angry at what they say is a whitwash of particularly
obnoxious activities.
The family gathering was centered near the Overland Reseroir, and business
owners and employees in Delta were startled by several incidents. Residents say
Rainbow members bathed nude in the Gunnison River, walked naked into the Delta
McDonald's restaurant and forced the dumping of hundreds of dollars worth of
bulk food and salad bar items in the Delta City market by treating food bins
like feeding troughs.
In one case, reported by the the City Market manager and one employee, two
family members were seen having sex in public, outside the market.
Free Camping
East of the city, KOA Kampground owners Bob and Janet Parker say vanloads of
the family members arrived late one nights, lifted the gate, camped without
paying and broke into bathrooms and showers.
Parker said he found a pair sleeping in the doorway of the public shower room.
"I wonder how many of our paying customers had to step over them to get in",
he said.
At McDonalds, swing shift manager Mike Fay said the nude men showed up one
Sunday morning.
"I walked up front and turned around, and here came two guys with nothing on.
They had long hair -- one had his hair died green -- and they wore rings. One
had a ring in his nose, the other had a lip ring.
"I said 'You guys are going to have to leave.' They both walked out the
back... I was kind of embarasses at first. Then I was angry."
Incidents at Market
Delat City Market employee Robin Morton said she saw memberts of the family
urinating and defecating in the store's parking lot. And store manager Dan
Overman said members were in the parking lot panhandling almoist daily.
Overman said family members were constanly reaching into the bulk-food bins
instead of using tongs and scoops provided, stuffing food into their mouths and
then throwing the remainder back into the bins.