While serial pooper crimes are not the most serious offenses that law enforcement investigate, they can be some of the most confounding. What would drive someone to maliciously defecate? There have to be better ways to get even than making a pit stop in someone's yard when you have a perfectly good bathroom in your own home.
Though it would take firsthand therapy to accurately diagnose a serial pooper's motivations, psychologists can still theorize on what drives the culprits. Dr. Thomas Hollenbach told NJ.com that the person purposely returning to a location to befoul it with their own waste is "weaponizing the emotion of disgust and using it to upset people." Others suggest that multiple episodes of serial pooping could be tied to a narcissistic personality, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or other personality disorders. The offender goes to such extreme measures because they believe there's no other way to be noticed. The poops may be a cry for help.
Whether due to anger or instability, many also return to the scenes of their crappy vandalism to drop off fresh loads. This list will introduce you to some of the most prolific rogue poopers the world has (regretfully) ever seen.
A New Jersey high school's football and track field was the scene for a daily deposit of human feces. After dealing with the routine cleanup, school staff started monitoring the area in hopes of catching the culprit. On April 30, 2018, police arrested another school district's superintendent, 42-year-old Thomas Tramaglini, after a morning run on the track. Police arrested and charged Tramaglini with lewdness, the discarding and dumping of litter, and public urination/defecation.
In 2016, a woman in New Orleans, LA, told media outlets that a man dressed in women's clothing and wigs regularly defecated on the steps of her home. A camera caught the disgusting incident on more than one occasion, showing the suspect in several different wigs and tight outfits. The homeowner was disgusted by the fact that she had to hose off her front steps multiple times a week. A nearby neighbor and bar owner added that the pooping occurred frequently in the area, with deposits discovered in several different places.
Over a three-year period beginning in 2012, the serial pooper known as the "Bowel Movement Bandit" relieved himself on or in 19 vehicles in Akron, OH. He also defecated on children's toys left in front yards, smeared feces on car door handles, and plopped it onto side mirrors. In March of 2015, a neighbor took a photograph of the Bandit pooping on the hood of his car. The Bandit seems to have retired after police released his image to the community.
Colorado's Mad Pooper
Cathy Budde of Colorado Springs, CO, spoke out in 2017 about a jogger who pulled down her pants and defecated in her front yard. Making everything worse, the jogger was first caught in the act by Budde's children. When confronted with her actions, the mystery Mad Pooper simply apologized and continued to leave feces at the home for two months. After the family went public and toilet paper manufacturer Charmin offered a year of free toilet paper if the Mad Pooper gave herself up, the suspect just stopped her stinky spree.
In November and December 2017, neighbors in an East Granby, CT, cul-de-sac found human feces on their street three times. Police became involved after the first incident occurred on November 7. On November 16, another pile of human excrement was found in the neighborhood, prompting the addition of a motion-activated camera. On December 5, 43-year-old Holly Malone defecated in the neighborhood again, this time captured by the camera.
Police arrested and charged Malone with second-degree breach of peace. She explained that she suffered from lactose intolerance, but still indulged in dairy from time to time. She used the cul-de-sac as a restroom when she felt she couldn't make it to her own home a few miles away.
A serial pooper terrorized a dorm at Southern Illinois University with eight separate incidents over a two-year stretch. Students in Abbott Hall would put a load of laundry in the wash and come back to find someone had pooped on their clean clothes. Sometimes, the culprit would put the clothes through another complete cycle with the poop. Since there were no cameras in the laundry room, the culprit went uncaught. Some suspected the crimes may have been punishment for not getting the laundry quick enough, and of the eight incidents, three targeted the same female student.
