Police dispatcher worked hard to nab park "poopetrators"

[matcom]

<snip>

The city: Monona.

The date: Oct. 29, just before midnight.

The scene: The turreted walkways of My Dream Park, a large play structure in Monona's Winnequah Park.

The crime: Well, let's just say that even a hard-boiled crime scene investigator wouldn't want to picture it while eating his cornflakes.

Monona Police Chief Walter Ostrenga struggled to find a delicate way to describe the crime wave that gripped the city's playgrounds last summer and through the early fall.

"It was a pretty disgusting type of act," he said, finally.

During the night, certain perpetrators were sneaking onto play equipment in parks and school yards and leaving deposits. It was the sort of thing that might seem funny to a depraved juvenile mind.



It wasn't funny to the city and school.

"We'd have to close off the park," said Ostrenga, "and hire a hazardous materials team to go clean and disinfect the park."

The city stepped up surveillance of the park, which is just across the street and down the hill from the Police Department. It installed lights and a security camera. But it couldn't catch the poopetrators.

Enter Bob McNown, a retired guy who works part time as a dispatcher for the Monona Police Department.

"He was very concerned about it," said Ostrenga, "and he thought he detected a pattern in the vandalisms."

With the chief's permission, McNown punched out after working his usual 3 to 11 p.m. shift Oct. 29, and drove over to the park in his own vehicle to watch.

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/index.php?ntid=20723&ntpid=5

[GOPisEvil]

1. Sounds like the "Phantom Shitter" from 'Flight of the Intruder'

:puke:

[seriousstan]

2. I favor creative sentencing here. I see a toothbrush and public toilets...

[alwynsw]

3. You're expecting it, so here it is.

What a shitty thing to do.