A “serial pooper” has left a No. 2 on the Ft. Barnard Park playground for the second time in as many weeks.
The ill-placed excrement was spotted this morning, conveniently while county crews were at the park for routine landscaping work.
“Unfortunately, the serial pooper struck again this morning,” a nearby resident told ARLnow.com. “This time it was not covered by a shirt, but a pile of human feces was found on the playground by some benches. County landscapers were already on the scene when it was found and called their office to arrange for cleanup and to discuss other methods to deter or catch the pooper. I guess this makes him the very brazen serial pooper.”
Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Susan Kalish confirmed that feces was found and that employees promptly took action to remove it.
“Yes, we found some more this morning,” Kalish said. “It is being cleaned up. We’ve notified police, rangers and are also working with homeless advocates.”
Kalish relayed some bullet points from the parks department regarding the defecation situation, including the somewhat surprising revelation that poop is pretty common in parks.
This is unacceptable behavior.
- To reiterate – please do not poop in public places. This is something your mom should have taught you long ago.
When we know about it, we remove it immediately.
- General practice is to remove waste on natural surfaces such as grass or mulch. However if the waste is on a surface such as concrete, paving or playgrounds, staff removes the waste and the cleans the area with disinfectant.
- Staff has turned the issue over to police and park rangers to continue investigating in an effort to stop the issue.
We regret this sometimes happens.
- As surprising as it may sound, it is not uncommon to find human waste in a park.
- A couple months ago we noticed sporadically the waste in Ft. Barnard Park. It stood out because someone puts a t-shirt on top of it.
- It became more common over the last month so park maintenance staff started pro-active check-ins at the park.
- It seems that the waste is deposited overnight.
As of 11 a.m. this morning, it appeared that the latest droppings had been cleaned up and about a dozen children and caretakers were in the park, playing on the playground.