Compulsion? Act of aggression? Form of expression?

Could there be a psychological element to explain public pooping?

Kenilworth Superintendent Thomas Tramaglini, 42, was charged Monday after being caught pooping on the Holmdel High School football field and track after surveillance was set up over human feces being found "on a daily basis" there, police have said.

But while we still don't know what Tramaglini's motivation may have been, or if he is, in fact, the serial pooper -- what we do know is that serial public pooping is a real thing.

In 2015, there was the "bowel movement bandit," a man who in Akron, Ohio, pooped on at least 19 parked cars in three years.

Then, in 2017, there was the infamous "mad pooper," a woman who would repeatedly poop in public during her morning jogs in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

And that same year, there was the culprit who repeatedly pooped in washing machines at dorms at Southern Illinois University. Wrong kind of loads.



But why? What compels this behavior?

In a joint telephone interview, NJ Advance Media spoke with clinical psychologists Dr. Thomas Hollenbach and Dr. Edward Callaghan about the possible motivations behind serial pooping.

Ethically, Hollenbach and Callaghan, founders of the Integrative Therapy Institute in Metuchen and Montclair, said they could not diagnose someone they had not seen.

But, speaking about the act in general terms, they both said serial public pooping is likely driven by some form of anger or resentment. It is, they noted, undoubtedly a deliberate, flagrant act.

"The fact that it's repeated means that it's intentional," Hollenbach said. "The person is weaponizing the emotion of disgust and using it to upset people."

You could probably explain one or two poops from some digestive issue, Callaghan said. But on a daily basis? For Callaghan, that indicates that there is something else going on.

"We wouldn't expect it to happen multiple times in the same place," he said.

Not to mention, someone who merely has digestive problems would likely take measures to find at least minimal privacy -- like behind bushes or a dumpster, Callaghan noted.

The more public it is, the more flagrant an act it probably was.

Hollenbach also likened serial pooping to potentially a form of vandalism. Except instead of graffiti, egg throwing, or tire slashing, serial poopers, well, they poop.

Whatever the individual components are with these serial poopers, Hollenbach said it all appears "very, very hostile."

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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