After the display of a Santa Claus holding a decapitated doll's head in front of his East 18th Street townhouse, it's not surprising to think of Joel Krupnik as a wacky and/or eccentric neighbor. However, chasing a 13 year-old girl and attacking her with dog poo that her Chihuahua left in front of his house is pretty much going into new territory in terms of bad neighbors. The Post reports that the 13 year-old's 4 pound dog pooped on the sidewalk - and did not scoop. That's a fine-able offense! Unfortunately Krupnik didn't make a citizen's arrest - he just chased her to her apartment building and smeared dog poop in her hair and on her CATHOLIC SCHOOL UNIFORM. The girl's mother claimed the daughter didn't see the dog poop near a tree and said, "She's just a baby. She's scared and afraid. He's the creepiest person in the neighborhood. He's not friendly at all. He's scary looking." Then why walk the dog in front of his house? We would imagine Krupnik is peering out of his windows, waiting for someone to pull stunts like that. Krupnik was arrested for "criminal mischief and menacing" and was "expected to spend the night in custody."
While we don't endorse people chasing poop non-scoopers, Gothamist must say we understand Krupnik's rage - there are some streets are veritable obstacle courses of dog crap. And the NYC Health Code calls dog (or cat) poop a "nuisance" in the law that forbids poops made on the sidewalk. But you need to be unhinged to pick up dog poop - even if you're wearing gloves. (If anyone can find out if Krupnik wore gloves, used his bare hands or grabbed a newspaper, let us know!)
Photograph of Krupnik with his daughter from Animal magazine on Flickr





Krupnik - 1
poo girl - 0
Yes it is a bit drastic to put it in her hair..but I can understand the frustration of lazy non scoopers.
The other sorta funny part of the article is that when Krupnik found out the girl was 13, he said he thought she was older. I would only hope that Krupnik would attack an adult this way and not just pick on little kids!
When I was watching a friend's chihuahua once, it took a dump on the sidewalk, and I couldn't find the poo, either, even after a few minutes' worth of searching, bag in hand, ready to scoop. So I give the girl the benefit of the doubt. Krupnik is an odious man.
I guess the kids in the neighborhood now know where to leave the flaming bag of poop.
Amen Dude. And if she is a "baby" why let her out alone?
Go pooptosser!
This delights me even more than bloody Santa! The Catholic school uniform detail is the cherry on top, as far as I'm concerned. There's NO excuse for not scooping, EVER (unless you happen to be projectile vomiting, in which case that's fine). Grab a handful of leaves for Christsakes!
13 year old girl+ Grammercy + 4 lb dog doesn't add up to someone who deserves my pity.
Yeah, I'm with shitman. A 13-year-old is still a kid, but definitely NOT a baby. 13-year-olds are nearly adult-height and are already smoking, misbehaving and fucking. Most 13 year olds think they're tough shit anyway. Fuck 'em. If the girl was 7 it would be a whole other story. But this girl was 13. She got what she deserved. Shit happens.
Every neighborhood has a guy like that...
His actions were a little over the top, to put it mildly.
The penalty for letting your dog crap on a sidewalk is not to get it smeared on you. Krupnick is a grade-z arse!@#$.
www.forgotten-ny.com
It's breaking news like this that keeps me coming back to Gothamist.
This story has everything:
shit, religion, violence, real estate, an animal, and an underage girl.
I can only imagine the search terms that will bring Quagmires across the Internet to this humble article. . . .
I think it's hilarious. Growing up (in suburbia) we had an old woman neighbor who severely disliked when another neighbors dog would shit on her lawn all the time. She would collect all the poop and place it on the dog owner's car.
My boyfriend has even thrown a bag of poop at a woman who did not feel it necessary to pick up after her dog. She tried to do a drop n' go, but we said something to her and then she claimed she did not have a bag (so we gave her one) and she turned into an A-#1 cunt, so she got bagged poop thrown at her. What's worse is the fact that my bf and I are white and she was Puerto Rican. A black guy walked by during the argument and immediately started to console the offender without knowing what happened. Uh...?
now wait a minute...i read gothamist religiously, love your stuff, and your take on all things new york...but come on, a grown man chasing a girl (and i don't care what age she is) and accosting her with dog poop (and i don't care what was the "accosting" material)???...just. plain. wrong. he couldn't merely SAY something? or, god forbid, pitch in and maybe just pick it up himself if he finds it so annoying (and i say this as a former dog owner, well acquainted with those who "forget", or "don't notice")? anyhow, i suggest mr. krupnick either learn how to behave like an adult, or pick on someone his own size (i will volunteer in a heartbeat....money=where my mouth is). thanks for listening.
He gave her a psuedo dirty sanchez. How about a heapin' pile of steamin' treats?
I'm not buying the "it was too small to see" excuse. A 57 year old man with thick glasses and 6ft 2 inches above the sidewalk was able to find it in time to chase a 13 year old girl down and then have enough poo to smear in her hair AND on her jacket?
One can not walk on the sidewalks in greenpoint without looking towards the ground and weaving a path through poop of all colors, shapes and sizes. I am not talking about just on the "curb" I mean smack in front of a stoop. It makes my blood boil.. I'd never pick it up and fling it, but some folk with dogs do not deserve to be dog guardians. You have to wonder about what sort of parents they are/will be.
There's a block on my street in Bushwick known as Doodoo Alley. It's right on the way to the subway station, and it's where everyone lets their dogs poop freely so that you have to stare at the ground the whole way down the street or else you will absolutely step in one turd or another. It drives me nuts that the people in the neighborhood don't even respect their own living space, that they don't even care that they live on a street covered in poop. There's an article in the Times today about everybody in Bushwick having asthma due to rat and roach infestations in their apartments, and it's not exactly a surprise if they're treating the insides of their homes as sloppily as they're treating their streets!
And as for that girl with the pooping Chihuahua, everybody knows that there are no bigger douchebags out there than 13 year olds. And nobody deserves a scalp full of poop more than a douchebag 13 year old who thinks the whole city is her dog's toilet, and whose mother resorts to ad hominem attacks on the "creepy," "unfriendly" neighbors so that her daughter will look like less of a disrespectful douchebag. Long live the Poop Man!
I hate to get all forensic on ya, but how big of doo are we actually talking? It is a Chihuahua afterall.
I think the good intentioned Mr. Krupnick may have overreacted. It does suck when people don't clean up after their dogs though, and 18th street has relatively narrow sidewalks. Again, how big?
Poo on the street is gross (and I'm a dog person!). You can tell when your dog is pooping. Pick that shit up.
My mom would say she deserved it, and I think so too! Sloth is correct in that so many kids here think the city is their toilet. If I had behaved like that when I was 13...?
I always thought dog owners looked the other way to give their pets a bit of privacy, but I refuse to believe she was completely oblivious to her dog squatting.
Amen to Mr. Krupnick. Dogs shit all over my street and I wish I had the balls to do what he did. That will definitely make the dog owners think twice about not picking up after their dogs.
Dog shit is unsanitary and that is why it is illegal not to pick up after your dog in NYC. The "I didn't know my dog pooped" is the oldest excuse in the book. I heard it used many times. I was at a beach once and two dog walkers made a scene about having to pick up after their dog claiming that it wasn't their dog that pooped when the whole beach witnessed it and they were the only ones at the beach with a dog.
Bottom line folks, if you don't want to clean up after your dog, get rid of it. It is nobody's job but yours to clean up after your dog. It is your shit so clean it up.
Not just NYC, d.
This whole country worships the dog for some odd reason.
Another pet peeve, dog Poo on a rainy day. It starts melting to liquid so you're tracking dog shit into your home and you don't know it.
i've noticed poo becoming more of a problem in the last few years. it seems the pooper-scooper law was more observed for a good long time, and now folks are not as vigilant anymore. is it time for cops to start handing out tickets? would rudy crack down on this quality-of-life issue? where did the squeegee guys go?
http://www.kithfan.org/work/transcripts/four/sandwich.html
this kids in the hall monologue is all i can think of whenever the subject of dog shit comes up. a sampling:
"The only thing sadder than the Sandwich People, are the *Poo* People. You know, the Poo People: adults who sleep alone every night, but everyday you see 'em walkin' their three pound dogs. If it were a fish you'd throw it back! But they love it and they walk it. They walk it with little plastic bags on their hands. Waitin' for their little three-pounder to have his poo. And when he does, they pick it up. And feel that heat in their hand. As if to say: "I am *alive*!!""
Jeez, we have a lot of hostile types in NYC.
www.forgotten-ny.com
What is with twisted logic people employ in this city? For (whatever) reason, it's OK to break laws and figuratively shit on your fellow city-dwellers? She's just a girl? She's old enough to walk a dog, she's old enough to pick up shit.
One of the primary reasons our city (and our country) is going down the crapper is that there are no penalties or consequences tied to peoples' actions.
Joel, I applaud you.
I saw a homeless guy on West 49th do the same thing to an oblivious woman in a camel hair coat a few years ago. He had said "Lady, your dog shit on the sidewalk", and she flipped him the bird. I gave him $20, and told him that he had made my day!