(PCM) SANTA FE, N.M. — It makes a great headline, “Dog poops in car, police called”. It’s not often police are called over dog poop. The Associated Press picked this up and every news outlet treated with little regard. The truth is a rational explanation exists to this bizarre story. PCM was given exclusive details by one of the witnesses.The first player is American Indian, Mateo Romero born in Berkeley California now living in Santa Fe and member of the Cochiti in New Mexico. Romero is well known locally as painter of the Pueblo. He exhibits his paintings at local charity events and markets. While driving his SUV, Romero’s dog, Han Solo, a Shih Tzu relieved himself on the back seat of his car.For whatever reason Romero didn’t simply pull to the side of the road, but possibly in a panic pulled into a random driveway to clean the mess. The drive he pulled into was Maria and Kent Markus’s.His decision was bad. He could have pulled into a large open vacant space across the street. He could have continued on down the block to the Amelia Park convenience shop. Other news outlets report that while Romero was cleaning his dog’s mess the home owner Maria Markus didn’t ask questions, instead she put her own car behind Romero’s while dialing 911 reporting Romero for burglary. According to Romero, rather than ask any questions, the homeowner refused to speak to Romero to accept an explanation. Could it simply have been a case of bizarre misunderstanding? It’s disturbing that news outlets make reports solely on police reports without looking further.In an exclusive interview Maria Markus provides further details. According to Mrs. Markus she was not home at the time Mr. Romero pulled into her drive. She wasn’t merely peering out her window ready to call 911 on the first trespasser into her yard. In her own words, “I had just come home with my dogs from the dog park when I pulled into my driveway to see a man flustered about to leave my premises. He did not introduce himself in any way and just told me to get out of his way so he could leave.” Prior reports leave out the proper explanation why Mrs. Markus contacted the police. In our interview she revealed she never saw the dog, and Mr. Romero then approached her car. Mrs. Markus continues, “He was sweating and telling me to get out of his way so he could just drive off. He tried to pull the handle of my car, if he was a robber why would I speak to him?” Logically one could argue Mrs. Markus should have just pulled out of her own drive for the sake of safety, but she also logically concluded that the man may have just robbed her house, and with so little information to go on she remained in her car and reported the possibility of a theft. The matter of concern was augmented by the fact Mrs. Markus husband was away on business. Being alone and new to the area, having just relocated from Montana, her best choice was to call the police. Of course since the call was reported as a robbery, when the police arrived the officer had his rifle drawn. Upon learning there was no robbery, the only thing left was for AP to tell a story about a man getting a gun drawn on him by police for cleaning out poop from his car. That’s truthful, but clearly not all of the truth.On a better day the Markus’s and Mr. Romero would be friends. After all, not only is Mr. Romero an artist, The Markus’s themselves are noteworthy artists with Maria being a producer and agent for her husband Kurt. Kurt is famous among cowboys as a cowboy photographer. See KurtMarkus.com . There is no invite by Mrs. Markus for Mr. Romero to return and pick up his (imitation) Alexander McQueen scarf. It was used to clean up the offending poop and left in Mrs. Markus bushes. Finders keepers.The situation ended peacefully. While Mr. Romero’s story was reported across many outlets as a victim, it seems justifiable now if one can hear Mrs. Markus finally calling what she could have said in the first place out to Romero as he drove away, “…get your piece of crap truck out of my drive!”