We received an email today from reader Jordy Trachtenberg, who relates the story of his one-man campaign to rid St. Mark's of a neighborhood homeless man, who he claims has been defecating in public. Trachtenberg told us that he's started posting fliers of the man around the neighborhood as a way to shame him into going away: "I don’t want to hurt this man; I do want to freak him out so he’s scared to come back." Read an excerpt from the email below:

I have been living in NYC for 25 years. For the first time, I have a problem that seems to be hard to solve. I live on St. Marks Place between 2nd and 3rd. For the past 6 weeks I’ve had a homeless man shit on the front door of my building. NOBODY wants to deal with it. 311, 911, etc just don’t care. I get it too, there are a lot bigger issues going on. But see, it’s a quality of life issue for both me and my neighbors and this sub human of a homeless man. It’s not fun starting your day off when you walk out of your building to greet the world and it kicks off with a pile of shit, the stench and flies. I have caught the Doorshitter in action! I was nice to him the first time. I told him he must stop and if he doesn’t I will take action. The Mad Crapper has continued his shitty assault on my door. I will stop this ace of a man dropping deuces if it’s the last thing I do!

Below, you can listen to a voice mail left for him by a friend who says he also ran into the homeless man on the verge of getting into a fight over his outdoor bathroom habits:

Jordy VR The East Village Door Shitter by xxxJORDYxxx

Trachtenberg told us that he's "met with all the shop owners on St, Mark's between 2nd and 3rd. Everybody has an issue with him. When he’s spotted…they will point and scream “DOORSHITTER, STAY OFF OUR BLOCK”." We called up several of the businesses in the neighborhood to see what they said:

  • A worker from Addiction NYC tattoo parlor, at 27 St. Mark's Place, said he's seen the homeless man, and seen the pictures around the neighborhood, but has yet to see the homeless man "in the act."
  • A woman from Andromeda also said she has heard about a homeless man causing trouble (and that there are a lot of homeless men), but added that she hasn't seen/heard anything about pooping, in particular.
  • A worker at St. Mark's Market told us: "It hasn't happened to us but we saw the sign across the street. There's a picture of him and it says, 'stop him, he's shitting in doorways.' You should call the restaurant who put it up. It's a Japanese restaurant called 'Go.' I actually just took a picture of the sign today."
  • We talked to one of the managers of Zen, which used to be named 'Go' (located at 30 St. Mark's), who told us: "I don't think so. No no no, I've never seen this. who put the sign there? I don't get it. You can call the police."

We called several other local businesses which Trachtenberg said would corroborate the story, but most did not answer their phones—we also called the building super at 30 St. Mark's, of whom Tratchenberg said: "This guy is about to quit because of the shit he cleans every day...He’s VERY grateful I’ve taken action." He hung up on us once without talking, and didn't pick up after that.

Nevertheless, Trachtenberg sounds committed to ridding the streets of this man: "I’m at the breaking point with this…I don’t want to hurt this man I do feel badly for him…but…..if this shitter doesn’t stop….I will treat him like a dog. I’ll wait…catch him (again) and rub his face in it." You can see more updates on the crapper saga on his Facebook page.

Update: We spoke to neighborhood resident Roberta Bayley, who confirmed that the homeless man has been defecating for the last 2-3 weeks in the neighborhood—she believes he does it in the middle of the day, because she doesn't see it when she walks her dog in the mornings. "He's someone who has been panhandling...Jordy saw him do the defecating, he showed me a picture he took [of the man] and I immediately knew who he was," she told us.

Bayley says she went to complain to the 6th Precinct, and the cops recognized him, and said they had arrested him many times for other things (not specifically for shitting). Ultimately, she thinks this is a mental illness problem: "I dont think the guy has all his marbles. i dont think hes doing it to be a creep, i just dont think hes all there."