A couple of months ago, at a city-owned lot in Bradenton, Florida, resident John Lundin started noticing something strange.
The lot had always attracted homeless residents as well as some illegal dumping, but Lundin said that what he began seeing was more striking: used toilet paper.
“I hate to say I’ve been analyzing the garbage, but I have," Lundin told the Miami Herald. "Something strikes me about this as being almost professional in the consistent way it’s done.”
Bradenton's public works department has cleaned up after each dumping episode, while also trimming a few trees to make lot more presentable. But city officials don't have many more answers than Lundin, leading them to speculate on who or what is behind the toilet paper.
“I question the motivation behind this and who is trying to make who look bad and for what reason,” City Administrator Carl Callahan told the Herald.
Some think the dumping might be related to local politics and the recent election, or its perhaps rooted in a failed library project proposed for the site years ago, though, in any case, Lundin said that the toilet paper dumpings have been tapering off a bit in 2017.
“I don’t know if this person was just running out of garbage or just got tired because it seems like a lot of work to carry all that garbage in here every night," Lundin told the Herald. "Or maybe he’s just stocking up.”