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TORONTO – Police are looking to the public for help identifying a man believed responsible for a series of bizarre vandalisms in one Akron, Ohio neighbourhood over the last three years.

Specifically, the “serial pooper” is believed to have left as many as 100 defecations at various locations around Akron’s Castle Homes neighbourhood.

His preferred targets? Cars, front lawns, even children’s toys.

“My mother-in-law walked out of our house one day, and the kids’ front yard slide had to be sanitized,” Castle Homes resident Rob Brunson told WKYC News in Cleveland, Ohio.

“People up and down our streets here in the Castle Homes neighbourhood were playing the blame game,” he said.

That’s because until recently, no one had any idea who the bowel movement bandit really was. Until the community began to share their similar stories, each resident believed they were the ones being individually targeted.

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As well, the incidents were never reported to police, so law enforcement had no idea how many incidents of feces-based vandalism there were.

Eventually, a quick tally among the community pegged the number of separate “pooping incidents” at over 100 during the last three years.

“This guy defecated on our vehicle eight times since last fall,” said a Castle Homes resident who wished to remain anonymous.

That same resident decided to set up a hidden camera in order to catch the prowling pooper, and overnight Monday he finally did.

“The photo shows this guy bent over on the hood, pants to ankles defecating on the car,” said Akron police Lt. Rick Edwards. “We need to know who this person is.”

As strange as it sounds, the mystery pooper is not the first man to go on a vandalism spree with his own excrement.

This past July, police in Houston hunted a man who would defecate in his neighbour’s yard in the middle of the night, striking one property over six times.

So if that man was serial pooper number one, that would make the Akron vandal number two – a distinction he likely has no problem with.