A business that sends imitation feces found itself in muddy water after the federal government filed suit to enforce a subpoena.

In a petition for order to show cause filed Tuesday, the government claims Poop Senders, which is allegedly owned by a Gibsonia man, has failed to comply with two separate requests for transactional records. The subpoenas stem from a postal investigation of whether subordinate employees harassed a supervisor through multiple means, including by sending fake feces through the mail.

The petition, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, claims the U.S. Postal Service's Office of Inspector General — in investigating a complaint that postal workers harassed and victimized a supervisor — asked Poop Senders for the identity of a customer twice. First in November 2019 and again in July 2020, both asked about the same October 2019 alleged mailing of fake feces to the postal supervisor.

Rather than dumping the documents as requested, the government alleges, Poop Senders responded to neither subpoena despite the latter being handed directly to John Santonastaso of Gibsonia, whom the government claims owns Poop Senders.

In a declaration attached to the petition, Special Agent Sarah King of the Office of Inspector General wrote the office is investigating whether these subordinate employees violated at least four Michigan criminal statutes; whether the employees violated provisions of the Postal Service's labor relations manual; and “the extent to which such conduct is occurring during working hours and utilizing Postal Service equipment and resources.”

The Postal Service does not seek a pile of information, King writes, as it would involve just one transaction and “will be instrumental in identifying the individuals involved in the harassing conduct.”

Poop Senders' continued failure to comply with the subpoena, the government claims, has clogged, and continues to block, the Postal Service's investigation.