SEPTEMBER 1--For the second time, a Maine man has been arrested for climbing down into the waste vault below an outhouse in a national park.

Gary Moody, 49, is facing federal charges for a Memorial Day incident at a campground in the White Mountain National Forest, where he was first arrested in 2005 after being spotted in the waste vault beneath a women's toilet (at the time Moody claimed he dropped his wedding ring down the toilet and climbed in to the vault to retrieve it).

According to an affidavit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Portland, a nine-year-old boy waiting to use the bathroom noticed that "the toilet had been pulled out and was lying on the floor. At that point a man popped out of the hole leading to the waste vault." After a few minutes, a "completely wet" man exited the restroom and told the boy, "Man, sorry about that, I was getting my shirt."

After learning of the bizarre incident, federal investigators immediately suspected Moody had been in the vault "based on the extremely rare nature of this type of activity." When interviewed at his home, Moody admitted climbing into the vault, claiming that his shirt had fallen into the waste chamber. Moody claimed that he had removed his shirt "and placed it on the seat of the outhouse because he thinks that outhouse seats are dirty."

When a federal agent commented that it did not make sense to "climb into an outhouse pit if he didn't like to even sit on outhouse seats," Moody fell silent. When asked if he had "ever had counseling because of the outhouse problem," Moody said no, adding that he had "anger toward society because of how he was treated after he was found in the pit of a National Forest outhouse in 2005."

Pictured at left in a mug shot taken after that earlier bust, Moody--now facing three misdemeanors--is due in federal court on September 16 for an initial appearance. (10 pages)