Last month, an internet fad of urinating on college campuses and anonymously posting videos of it to social media began at California’s Chico State University with the TikTok account “chicostatepisser,” before spreading across the country, including into Livermore’s own Las Positas Community College. In an effort to put an end to this unsanitary vandalism, law enforcement, campus security, and online vigilantes have made it their mission to hunt down and identify the perpetrators.

Since Christopher Hutton, a student and journalist at Chico State, co-wrote an article on the vandalism for the university’s student-run newspaper “The Orion,” Chico State has announced that they have identified a suspect and taken them in for questioning. For now at least, the university has decided to handle the situation internally and has not released any information about the suspect.

Other students have begun copying the crime, both in Chico and elsewhere, but the numbers reflect a decline in the public’s interest. While the original “chicostatepisser” reportedly gained over 100,000 views before the account was removed by its owner, current campus-urination accounts are numerous in population, but fail to gain the same level of virality as the original.

“This is very in line with shock value. The thing is, it’s kind of just depleted a little bit with time. The shock value that people receive from someone peeing on a university campus has kind of gone down over time… I think consumers feel that way, especially when a copycat comes out. With the Chico State Pisser, he was caught by the university and is going through the student conduct process right now, and so it’s like the climax of the story kind of ended. The Pisser was caught.” Hutton said.

Granada’s most local example, “laspositaspisser,” has only two videos, and both have well below 5,000 views on TikTok.

The flip-side of the fad is shown in the phenomenon of accounts like “csupisshunter,” who have built an internet persona of vigilantism. This particular account consists only of videos showing the locations of previous vandalisms, and edits of James Doakes, a detective character in the television series “Dexter,” making vague threats about what will happen when he identifies the suspect.

In an anonymous interview Hutton shared with The Pomegranate, the hunter said about the account, “I made this out of a quick whim. I didn’t think I’d gain so much popularity so quickly online and on campus.”

Just as the vandalism itself was more about sensationalism than anything else, the vigilante investigation appears to be the same.

“I’ll be honest, I just don’t do much. There’s nothing truly to do…” the hunter said.