Mystery Pooper Repeatedly Defiles Bike Path to a Small Town's Torment

Someone in the small town of Hampton, Illinois, population 1,863, has been carrying a dark and dirty secret for the last two years. Well, leaving one, actually.

A phantom pooper regularly defecates on the town bike path.

“It’s just pretty nasty to talk about,” Scott McKay, Hampton’s Public Works supervisor, told the local TV station, WQAD. “It’s gross and other people shouldn’t have to use our path like that.”

They aren’t accidents, either. Restrooms are nearby. The town is so sick of the purposely laid messes that a most unusual step has been taken. Two warning signs recently were planted that read: “Stop pooping on bike path.”

Each features a smiling poo emoji.

McKay says he knows the mystery defecator is a human, too.

“Well, animals don’t carry toilet paper and then stuff it on the top,” McKay says, noting that every pile is decorated with a piece of toilet paper.

Hampton, situated across the Mississippi River from Bettendorf, Iowa, boasts that the path is “one of the most scenic” along the river. Aside from the poo.

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