Nebby post alert: Search is on to identify mysterious poops

In Pittsburgh, locals call being nosy and gossipy “nebby” and Pittsburghers looooove to be nebby. And while nebbiness used to be confined to water coolers, neighborhood meetings, or chats on the porch, modern-day nebbiness can now be found online.

The nebbiest posts are usually found on Nextdoor.com — a social media site for sharing neighborhood happenings that is sometimes filled with paranoia — but nebby posts can really be found anywhere on the web: Facebook groups, Twitter, and even online comments and reviews.

Pittsburgh City Paper is setting out to collect the best, craziest, and non-offensive nebby posts from across the region, and will be sharing them on a regular basis. According to Pittsburghers on social media, some of the more memorable posts over the years have included: someone filing an official noise complaint and calling the police over a neighbor's wind chimes in Garfield, a Pittsburgh racoon causing a ruckus after getting drunk off fermented berries and crab apples, and someone allegedly leaving random fruits in a neighbor's yard in Bellevue, aka a “drive-by fruiting.”

On Sept. 3, a person in Squirrel Hill came across a fairly large pile of poop and other remains, and wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“Mysterious animal remains and waste,” wrote the Nextdoor user. “Saw this animal remains (bunny’s claw?), lots of hair, and a piece of poop. Anyone get a theory what happened? The location is north Squirrel Hill.”

The user wasn’t just curious as a naturalist, they also shared anxiety about how the piece of poop and remains could be tied to something that could be dangerous to young Pittsburghers.

“What could the suspect be and could it be a threat to toddlers?” asked the user.
That person wasn’t the only fecal detective on the case in Allegheny County last month. Sometime in late September, a Nextdoor user in Blackridge, a suburban community in Eastern Allegheny County, was also seeking help identifying some scat.

“Can someone help me identify this here poop?” wrote the user in the general thread of the site. The image the user attached showed a dark, singular log of poop in the grass. The user apparently placed a quarter next to the shit to help gauge the size of the small turd.
CP is going to keep sharing the best nebby posts when we find them, as often as we can, but we also would love our readers to help. If you come across a funny, interesting, or particularly nebby post, please send it our way to [email protected]. We will remove any identification information from the post. (Please don’t send any racist, transphobic, or otherwise offensive content, we have no intentions of amplifying those.)