Oh, poo! Video IDs suspect in prank

By MINDY KEPFIELD

Staff writer

Marion city police have tracked down and spoken to a male in his early 20s suspected of pulling a potentially dangerous prank.

Late this weekend, a doorbell camera captured a man placing a bag of burning feces on the porch of a residence in the 200 block of N. Cedar St.

Officers tracked him down, but were not able to make an arrest, because the crime occurred several days ago.

Marion city police chief Clinton Jeffrey said he plans to submit the appropriate paperwork to the county attorney today.

Despite the suspect being an adult, Jeffrey declined to release his name.

“Once charges have been filed, we will release his name,” he said.

The home’s owner, Marion resident Beth Lynch, said officers contacted her and she wants charges pressed.

“I told the officer that I could sleep rest of that night,” she said.

Lynch checked her video camera when she noticed someone on her porch at 11 a.m. She then saw the burning bag.

“Luckily it put itself out. I have a scorch mark where it was at,” she said. “I am lucky the porch is wood, and it didn’t do any more than scorch it.”

The stunt seems like a harmless prank, but it could have caught the home’s porch on fire, Jeffrey said.

“It could have gone in multiple directions,” he said.

He heard of a similar incident 10 years ago at the home of a former high school principal.

Lynch posted the video on a social media page.

Most who commented agreed it was a stupid stunt, but many still were disturbed by the incident and glad it did not start a fire.