The entrance to the Pendleton Underground Tour’s Shamrock Stairs is quiet on Monday, May 22, 2023, in downtown Pendleton, but recent security video footage shows two men using the stairwell as a toilet. Pendleton Underground staff has even had to clean human feces off the property.

PENDLETON — After installing a set of security cameras, Pendleton Underground Tours Executive Director Brooke Armstrong discovered who was using the sub-surface entrance to her property as a public toilet.

“This has been going on forever,” she said. “We have not just had people only urinate, but take bowel movements down there. It has only been since we put cameras up recently that we are catching who is doing it.”

Before Armstrong installed the cameras, she explained she and her staff would give tours with 18-20 paying guests down to the Pendleton Underground’s “Shamrock Stairs” and face the smell of urine, or find human feces laying around.

“Can you imagine how embarrassing that is not only for us as a business but for our town?” Armstrong said. “To top it all off, I get to clean it up, or my staff, or my husband.”

One time it was so bad, she said, he didn’t want us to do it.

Armstrong said the two most recent incidents happened within 12 hours of each other on Wednesday, May 17. She said these saddened her the most because they are locals she recognized and knew were not homeless. The public micturitions prompted Armstrong to express her ire on her personal Facebook page, complete with the videos of the men going down the stairwell to pee.

“I am a very calm person by nature and don’t normally like to blast stuff all over social media, but I have had it,” Armstrong said. “The end of March had our gift shop glass door completely smashed in, and whoever did it ran in, stole our cash drawer, two computers and ran out. Just a week after I had to have a girl trespassed for camping out in the Shamrock Stairs with a tarp and all. Then I had to set the alarm off on two guys doing drugs down there.”

One of the videos shows a man wearing a yellow T-shirt, pink backpack and a black and white baseball cap walk down the stairs, unzip and pee while continuing to play a video game or such on his smartphone.

Armstrong said she is done with these kinds of behaviors at Pendleton Underground.

“At this point, I am going to call the cops every time someone is down there without permission and have them trespassed from all of the businesses we own on the block,” she said. “I’ve spoken with the chief of police and he asked that I send videos to him anytime I have a problem so they can take care of it.”

Armstrong explained staff has caught most of the human waste before it could affect the business, but the constant worry has affected her and her employees in and out of work.

“After the break-in, I’m literally up and down all night checking the cameras on my phone every time they go off,” she said.

A more prolific issuePat Beard, manager of the Pendleton Convention Center, also has been managing the Vert Auditorium for the last two years. He said the Vert has faced similar issues to the Pendleton Underground Tours since he came on as manager.

“We end up having to deal with it and clean up the entrances and area around the Vert to keep it acceptable to those running it,” Beard said. “All of the stairwells that lead underground, especially in the utility areas, are a constant issue for us. We find human waste, drug paraphernalia, garbage and graffiti. It’s just a complete disrespect to the space.”

The situation becomes doubly frustrating as the Vert has no recourse other than to clean up the mess, he said. Though the city of Pendleton has a law on the books criminalizing public urination or defecation, depending on the circumstances, it often amounts to a violation, one step beneath a misdemeanor, which Pendleton Police Chief Charles Byram confirmed, but added any penalty depends on the circumstances of each incident.

“We’re constantly working with the Pendleton Police Department, but there’s only so much we can do,” Beard continued. “The right to rest allows people to be in place from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. If they are there before or after that, I immediately have them trespassed.”

Beard said the situation goes beyond someone peeing in a public space.

“We’re picking up foil that drugs are smoked in and human waste,” he said. “It’s a dangerous issue for my staff. It wastes tax dollars and community resources.”