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Health department investigates droppings in West Jordan neighborhood

Posted at 9:29 PM, Jan 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-06 11:53:39-05

WEST JORDAN, Utah -- People living in one West Jordan neighborhood came home to strange, brown spots splattered all over their driveways. There was brief concern that it was human feces dropped from a plane.

"When I came home from work today I went to get the garbage cans and I just noticed a bunch of brown droplets splattered all over the driveway by the garage door and over by the front porch," said Gwen Shilling, who lives on West Teton Estate Drive.

The West Jordan Fire Department and the Salt Lake County Health Department were called in to investigate around 6 p.m. Thursday.

"I've never seen this before, I've lived here eight years, I've never seen this before so it's just weird," Shilling said.

Her neighbor had the same brown spots on their driveway. The West Jordan Fire Department said they have no idea what they were. Shilling had a hunch it was feces, maybe from a flock of birds or maybe from a plane.

"I mean if it's human I want somebody to come clean it up, if it's not, if its birds, it will go away with the snow, but if it's human I don't want to be walking in it and tracking it through my house," Shilling said.

After a thorough investigation, the Salt Lake County Health Department concluded the spots were bird droppings.

"The reason we think it's from birds, there is no blue in color, there is no toilet paper, and the way that it spread--it appears to have grains and other things in the pellet-size fecal material that's on the ground," said Ron Lund of the Health Department.