Wife blames medications for her husband’s naked stroll through Walmart

LACONIA — The man who walked naked through the Gilford Walmart was experiencing a severe reaction to prescription medications that he had just started taking, according to his wife.

The man was placed in protective custody by authorities Thursday after he strolled unclothed into the store. Once in custody, he was taken by Gilford Fire Department ambulance to Lakes Region General Hospital.

“He doesn’t remember doing this. He didn’t come around until after he was put into the ambulance,” said the man’s wife, who called The Laconia Daily Sun and agreed to answer a reporter’s questions Monday on condition of anonymity for her and her husband.

She said her husband has been on prescription medications for a couple of different issues. He had taken two medications, just prescribed for the first time last Thursday morning, with no immediate ill effects, she said.

If his doctor had instead prescribed the medications he had taken previously without any problem, this would not have happened, she insisted.

“Make him a lab rat, and this is what happens,” she said.

The woman said she went with her husband and daughter to the Gilford Walmart, but her husband stayed in their vehicle while she and the daughter went into the store to do some quick shopping.

“We were in the self-service checkout line. The next thing we saw him walking in the store naked and yelling,” she said.

The woman was especially upset that someone posted a video of her husband on Facebook which has made him an object of ridicule.

“It’s not funny,” she said. “They got him at his weakest. Now he’s so embarrassed that he doesn’t want to go out.”

She said her husband has a scheduled appointment with his doctor today.