As excuses for being nude in a tree at 5 p.m. go, his was pretty good.

Stone Mountain residents called 911 Saturday, perplexed by the presence of the man on Scarbrough Lane, according to a police report. Neighbors thought he was “suspicious.”

When one resident spied the 42-year-old man perched above his backyard, the stranger tried to explain.

The nude man said he was looking for a cat, the report said.

Strangely, the homeowner had seen him a few moments earlier at a neighbor’s house and the now-nude man was wearing shorts and a shirt.

The resident called the police, but the stranger disappeared, ditching his clothes and climbing the tree.

An officer soon detained the man, who would be charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure, and loaded him into the patrol car, handcuffed, still naked. The man’s body was covered in scratches, which police theorized had come from the tree, not the cat.

It isn’t clear if a cat was ever found.

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In other news:

Police arrested four teenagers for trespassing at a DeKalb County school.