Some Anti-Poop Activist Is Flagging Piles of Dog Doo with Photos of Nic Cage

While a five-person "poop patrol" is set to scour the streets of San Francisco next month steam-cleaning human waste off the city's sidewalks, the residents of Roanoke, Virginia, apparently lack the resources needed to deal with their own fecal fiasco. Instead, the Roanoke Times reports, they're relying on a rogue citizen who's calling attention to unpicked-up piles of dog shit with photos of the greatest actor on the planet: Nic Cage, baby.

"I have no idea why it’s Nicolas Cage," a local who spotted the photocopied signs about three weeks ago told the Times. "It’s just a nice reminder: This needs to be taken care of."

And while the visual effect is pretty funny, the poop problem in the area is a "serious issue," Dwayne D’Ardenne, the city's Stormwater Utility director, told the Times. According to D'Ardenne, bacteria is finding its way into the Roanoke River, leaving some stretches of it so polluted they "don’t meet water quality standards."

Meanwhile, not everyone is happy with the joke—especially because the anti-poop activist is just adding litter on top of litter, and planting a sign takes about as much effort as picking up dog crap. And while both the Roanoke Times tipster and the local government officials quoted in the story have denied being behind the awareness campaign, authorities have urged whoever is spearheading the project to come forward.

"We would prefer that they just reach out to us and let us take care of maintenance like that," the city's Parks and Recreation director told the Times. "It is comical, but it starts to get on a slippery slope."

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