Education boss exposed as high school's mystery 'pooper'

Thomas Tramaglini has been charged with defecating in public, lewdness and littering. Photo / via police

The case of the mystery "pooper" has been solved after New Jersey police arrested a US school district's superintendent.

Thomas Tramaglini, 42, the Kenilworth school superintendent, was charged on Monday (US time) with defecating in public.

He was allegedly caught taking an early morning dump at the Holmdel High School football field by surveillance cameras.

Tramaglini, who lives about 5km from the high school, was arrested on Monday morning at 5.50am when he was found at the school's athletic fields.

Police said the school decided to set up the cameras after employees reported finding human faeces "on a daily basis".

The Holmdel School Resource Officer was alerted by the coaches and staff who were finding human faeces, on or near the area of the high school's track and football field every day, Holmdel police said in a statement on Thursday.

Tramaglini has also been charged with lewdness and littering.

It is still unclear why Tramaglini decided to use the football field as his bathroom and authorities are interviewing him over the incidents.

It's also unclear how long the alleged lewd acts occurred. And an officer from the Holmdel Police Department told the DailyMail.com that they were unable to comment on how long the incidents had been happening.

School officials also have not commented about when the behavior began.

Kenliworth Public Schools said that Tramaglini was placed on paid leave in a statement posted to their Facebook page.

"Earlier today, we learned of municipal court charges facing our current superintendent of schools in Holmdel, NJ. Given the nature of those charges, he asked for and was granted a paid leave of absence," the school system wrote.

Leaves can only be without pay in the face of indictments or tenure charges, as a matter of state law.

Superintendent Thomas Traglini.

The married, father-of-two makes nearly US$150,000 ($213,000) per year as the superintendent.

Effective immediately, Brian Luciani, the current Director of Academics, will assume the responsibilities of the office of superintendent of schools.

"The Board of Education wants to assure faculty and staff, students and parents, that the district will continue its responsibilities without interruption," the statement read.

Tramaglini was unanimously appointed to lead the Kenilworth School District by the Kenilworth Board of Education in 2015.

He replaced former superintendent Scott Taylor who resigned in August 2015.

Tramaglini is also a part-time lecturer for the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, where he makes US$5277 ($7511) per year.

He has a Ph.D in Educational Administration and a master's degree from Rutgers, and a bachelor's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson.

Tramaglini will report to court on Monday to answer the charges.

Public pooping appears to have become a thing in the past three years.

First there was the guy who pooped on nearly 20 cars over a period of two years in Ohio. The filthy felon is known as the "bowel movement bandit".

Then, in 2017, came the "mad pooper", who turned out to be a woman. The woman would continuously poop in public during her morning jogs in Colorado Springs.

Is criminal "pooping" on the rise in the US?

Within the last five years it would seem that defecating in public is the new thing Stateside.

Bowel Movement Bandit

In 2015, Ohio residents reported more than a dozen cases of poop that was found on top of cars.

The culprit became known as the "bowel movement bandit" after pooping on 19 cars within a span of two years. Photo / Supplied

The culprit became known as the "bowel movement bandit" after pooping on 19 cars within a span of two years.

He would strike in the early morning hours of 3.30am and 5.30am.

Mad Pooper

Then, in 2017, came the "mad pooper", who turned out to be a woman.

The woman would continuously poop in public during her morning jogs in Colorado Springs.

Colorado Springs police said the woman defecated on a family's lawn for almost two months.

Police became involved after the family spotted the woman with her pants down outside their home last August.

Co-ed Pooper

A college dorm was ravaged by a mysterious pooper who left droppings in the washing machines in October 2017.

The faecal fiend left residents terrified of doing laundry at Abbott Hall located on the campus of Southern Illinois University.

Residents avoided doing their laundry for fear that someone would 'drop a load' in their wash.

At least eight students took their clothes out of the washer and discovered traces of poop on their clothes.

The faecal fiend has left residents terrified of doing laundry

The Mad Pooper of New York

Last December, residents in a Buffalo suburb reported having to deal with a "mad pooping jogger".

The person was simply going around and relieving themselves wherever they pleased.

One woman called the cops about the pooper stinking up her lawn while another tried to warn them by placing an advert in the newspaper telling them to stop it.

The POOP-etrator

Earlier this year in January, a jogger terrorised an Arkansas neighbourhood by pooping all over people's property and even on their cars.

This guy would even smear the poop along people's car doors.