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Naked Cowboy's car nearly stolen from Times Square parking garage

The Naked Cowboy almost lost the figurative horse he rode in on when a would-be car thief apparently tried to steal his car from a Times Square parking garage.

Robert Burck, the 44-year-old street performer better known as Naked Cowboy, was driving to work from Queens early Sunday when he had a "strong urge to use the restroom," according to Todd Rubenstein, executive director of Burck's Naked Cowboy Enterprises.

When Burck pulled into the parking garage, he parked next to the bathroom and ran in, leaving the engine running and his keys inside. An unidentified man then jumped into Burck's Cadillac Escalade "and began to drive off," Rubenstein explained in an email.

A parking attendant "saw this happening and darted across the parking garage, entering the passenger side of the vehicle and subdued the subject and stopped the vehicle safely."

Burck — who usually changes in the parking garage restroom before hitting the streets of Times Square with his guitar, boots and briefs — said he was in shock when he came out of the bathroom.

"I thought that someone was mad at me for not pulling all the way in," Burck said. "And the guy they were beating up on the ground was an employee who was moving my car."

But Burck — who told NPR he was arrested 16 times before bringing his Naked Cowboy routine to New York — persuaded employees at the garage not to call the police and to let the man go.