Police seek Yale University laundry room 'poopetrator'

In the past several weeks, an unknown individual or group, whom students have dubbed the ‘poopetrator,’ has repeatedly defecated in students’ laundry at Saybrook College at Yale University In the late evening of Sept. 7, Lucy Fleming opened the dryer in the college laundry room to an unpleasant surprise.



Her clothes were soiled with human faeces, and it took the physical delivery of the excrement to the Saybrook Master’s Office to catch administrators’ attention. On Sept. 6, Fleming said, two other Saybrook students, Fleming’s suitemate and her suitemate’s boyfriend, were first targeted, as their clothes were soiled with urine and food waste.

The next day, when Fleming’s clothes were also urinated upon, she re-washed and dried them only to find that excrement had ruined them. “I simultaneously wanted to throw up, cry and punch someone,” Fleming said. After an additional episode was reported on Sept. 26, Saybrook Master Paul Hudak announced that Yale Police has officially joined the investigation and is seeking further information.


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“We have asked our students not to leave their laundry unattended, the affected machines have been thoroughly disinfected, and we are actively seeking information about who the perpetrator might be,” Hudak said. “That’s about all we can do.” Many students expressed desire to have the Saybrook laundry room watched by security guards, but in the meantime, undergraduates have taken matters into their own hands. Students have been standing watch over the machines.