Residents of an affluent neighbourhood in California are pissed.
For the past six years, someone wearing a mask and latex gloves brings bottles of labelled urine to a Pasadena, California street, artfully arranges them on a utility box, then takes off, the New York Post reported.
Nobody knows the identity of the person locals call the “Piss Bandit,” thanks to the pop bottles, juice cartons and gallon jugs filled with pee.
On the containers of yellow liquid are often drawings of smiley faces or messages that read “human urine” or “HIV positive.”
The Piss Bandit strikes several times a week, bringing bottles that appear in the mornings — but vanish by nightfall.
“It’s been a tug-o-war between the neighbourhood and this guy,” Grant Yansura, who launched an investigation into the culprit with his partner, filmmaker Derek Milton, told the Post.
One of their true crime-style videos on TikTok, which includes hidden-camera footage, has more than 6.2 million views.
The city tried to stop the so-called bandit by installing a pointed metal cap on the electrical box, but he simply destroyed the cover — and left behind more urine-filled bottles for their trouble.
However, while many in the neighbourhood find the bandit’s actions “disgusting,” Milton and Yansura believe he’s more of a vigilante artist, according to the publication.
They wanted to find out his motive, and even left the bandit a note that read: “I am a big fan of your installation art … I think your work is on the same level as Banksy + Shepard Fairy.”
The “Piss Artist,” as Milton referred to him, didn’t respond — but he did steal the camera they left there to try to expose him.
For their next attempt to smoke out the bandit, the TikTok sleuths placed another camera at the side that included a voice intercom function.
But the bandit ignored their efforts to communicate and stole that camera as well.
RECOMMENDED VIDEO
Out two cameras, Milton and Yansura have called it quits.
“His dedication to his craft is what intrigued us, and we wanted to know why. But we realized he doesn’t want to tell us why,” Yansura said.
“Sometimes you just have to let an artist pee.”