Train-mooning draws smaller, calmer crowd

updated 10:49 p.m. ET July 11, 2009

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - The pants were down but so was the size of the crowd for a bizarre ritual in Southern California.

It's the annual "Moon Over Amtrak" event in the Orange County community of Laguna Niguel in which people line up to moon passing commuter trains.

It began as a bar bet in 1979 and has continued ever since.

Sheriff's Lt. Ted Boyne says as many as 400 people showed up for Saturday's mass mooning. Last year, about 8,000 showed up, mostly out-of-towners. And deputies shut it down after things got ugly, with traffic jams, drinking and public nudity.

This year's crowd in contrast is described as mellow. A couple of cars got towed, but deputies say nobody got drunk and there were no arrests.

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