MULTNOMAH COUNTY, Ore. — A downright disgusting and potentially dangerous situation is ongoing in East Multnomah County. Someone is illegally dumping human feces, in an unusual pattern, along rural roads.
"It's been going on for about two years and quite frankly it's starting to drain our resources," said Multnomah County Health Department enforcement officer Dave Thomson.
For years Thomson has been chasing an unusual suspect, someone who is using the normally scenic east county roads as their own public toilet.
"The pattern seems to be about three sacks per week," Thomson said. He said the sacks are full of human feces mixed with kitty litter.
Since the mysterious dumping began in 2018, Thomson has picked up more than 200 of the bags. He even switched his schedule to work night shifts to try and catch the culprit.
"It seems to happen either at dusk or the early morning hours," he said.
The perpetrator or perpetrators aren't just tossing the bags from their car onto the road or into a ditch, they are meticulously placing them on the road in what seems to be a pattern.
"It seems to be always on the passenger side, so it leads us to believe there may be two people," Thomson said. "One person driving and one person dropping it."
Thomson collects what he can, but those sacks he cant get to often lead to not only gross but also hazardous situations.
"Kids play in these streets and roads and if it's tracked there's clearly a sanitary issue and a health concern," said Thomson.
"I applied my brakes as I was coming down to that stop sign and I could feel my front end slip and I realized what I was on," said Rick Ashford.
Like Thomson, Ashford is fed up. "I've never seen anything like this in my life," he said.
After that close call on his motorcycle, the Corbett resident joined in the hunt for the devious dumpers. "We've been out here all hours of the day and night trying to get this guy," said Ashford.
As for why someone would do this?
"There's a couple theories," Thomson said. "One is that they're sending a signal maybe to the public or even to Multnomah County for some reason... they could be unhappy with the county."
The county is asking folks who live along county roads in Troutdale, Springdale and Corbett to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.
"If they happen to have cameras, if they can aim them towards the roads and report any suspicious vehicles and just keep an eye out," Thomson said.
Perhaps they could help put an end this multi-year mess.
"Yeah, we're working on it," Ashford said. "Sooner or later we'll catch them, it's just a matter of time."