Human Waste in the Playground - photos included!

I thought this looked suspiciously human (not that any animal should be pooping in the playground), but I got a second opinion from another frequent playground attendee. She was decisive: "Oh, that's human. That's human. Definitely." She then promptly removed her charge from the playground and they went to the large sprinkler. She pointed out that kids will run in the poop and then climb on the playground equipment, slide down the slides, run around "clean" areas - all the while dragging excrement about with them. Pretty darn stomach-churning. They were gone within 45 seconds.


The playground doesn't get locked overnight*, so it's no wonder that it's a hangout for teens and other "too old for the playground" folks after dark. I'm not saying that people can't/won't make a poo-poo (it's a playground, so baby talk is appropriate enough) during the day, but daylight and other attendees tend to be a deterrent, of sorts.

One deposit of human excrement was left pretty much at the base of the double slides on the grassy side entrance. The other was closer to the squiggly orange and yellow things that kids like to climb on and run around. Mmmmmm.


I mentioned my finds to a Park worker, and she said they usually hose down discoveries of this sort. The sad thing is that the playground looked pretty darn good otherwise: the sun sprinkler was finally shut off, so that area could be cleaned well. Also, the rest of the grounds looked nicely picked-up. Perhaps the storms today will take care of it...and maybe I'll take a can of Lysol into the playground with me next time. I don't think plain water will take care of
all the goodies that come with the poo.

*Another issue: Why doesn't the playground get locked overnight? Can't this be something that is part of the rounds/closing routine of the Park? The gates aren't particularly high, especially where the swings attach to the other equipment, but at least it would be a message that the playground is closed.