Yes, you can sue someone for mailing you poop. A package of feces sent to your home supports a civil lawsuit for intentional infliction of emotional distress, private nuisance, or invasion of privacy, and depending on your damages you can seek compensation for cleaning costs, therapy, lost wages, and punitive damages. The sender can also face federal criminal charges under 18 U.S.C. ยง 1716 and state harassment or stalking charges, but those are separate from your civil case. The real obstacle in most of these cases isn’t the law. It’s figuring out who sent the package.
Preserve the Package Before You Do Anything Else
Your lawsuit depends on evidence, and the package is the evidence. Don’t throw out the box, the inner wrapping, the shipping label, or any note that came with it. Photograph everything first: the exterior, the label, postage and barcodes, and the contents. Then seal the whole thing in a plastic bag and store it somewhere it won’t be disturbed.
File a police report even if your local department seems uninterested. The report creates an official record that supports later civil claims. If the package came through the U.S. Postal Service, call the Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455. Postal Inspectors investigate harassing mail as a federal matter and have subpoena power to trace a package back to its sender.1United States Postal Inspection Service. Threatening Letters and Cyberbullying If it came through FedEx or UPS, contact that carrier’s security department with the tracking number.
Civil Claims That Fit This Situation
Criminal prosecution is the government’s call. A civil lawsuit is yours. Three legal theories cover almost every mailed-feces case.
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
This is usually the strongest claim. You have to show the sender’s conduct was extreme and outrageous, that they acted intentionally or recklessly, and that you suffered severe emotional distress. Courts set a high bar for “outrageous,” but deliberately mailing excrement to a person’s home clears it. If the package came with a threatening note or followed a known personal dispute, the case gets stronger.
Document the distress. Therapy visits, sleep problems, anxiety about opening your mail, missed work. Courts want concrete evidence of psychological harm, not just the obvious disgust anyone would feel.
Private Nuisance
Nuisance covers interference with your ability to use and enjoy your property. Biohazardous material delivered to your home qualifies. You need to show the sender acted intentionally and unreasonably, which is easy when someone deliberately ships feces to your address. A nuisance claim supports recovery for professional cleaning, replacement of contaminated items, and the disruption to your household.
Intrusion Upon Seclusion
This privacy theory applies when the sender’s conduct would be highly offensive to a reasonable person and violated your reasonable expectation of being left alone at home. A single anonymous package is a weaker standalone privacy claim, but it contributes to the overall picture when combined with a pattern of other intrusive conduct.
What You Can Recover
Compensatory damages cover therapy, cleaning, replacement property, lost wages, and emotional distress. Punitive damages are also realistic. Courts award them when a defendant acted intentionally and knew the conduct would cause harm. Mailing someone feces is about as deliberately offensive as civil conduct gets, which is exactly the territory punitive damages exist for.
Identifying an Anonymous Sender
This is where most of these cases stall. You can’t sue a person you can’t name. If the package arrived anonymously, you have a few options for unmasking the sender.
Postal Inspectors can trace USPS packages using internal tracking, postmarks, and surveillance from sorting facilities. FedEx and UPS keep detailed shipping records tied to whoever paid for the delivery. Getting those records usually requires either a law enforcement investigation or a court order.
On the civil side, you can file a John Doe lawsuit, naming the unknown sender as a placeholder defendant. Once the case is filed, you can use discovery to subpoena the shipping carrier or the prank company that fulfilled the order, compelling them to produce the buyer’s name, address, and payment information. Several states have specific procedures for these subpoenas, often requiring notice to the anonymous person and a waiting period before the company has to respond.
Prank poop-sending companies don’t shield the buyer. Federal investigators have used subpoena power against at least one such company to identify who placed an order, and the same discovery tools are available to you in a civil case. If you already suspect who’s responsible based on timing, a personal dispute, or the content of a note, share that with law enforcement and your attorney. Circumstantial evidence narrows the investigation.
Small Claims Court or Regular Civil Court
If you know who sent the package and your damages are modest, small claims court is worth a serious look. Filing fees are low, you don’t need a lawyer, and the process moves fast. Monetary limits vary by state, ranging from $2,500 to $25,000. For cleaning costs, replacement of contaminated items, and moderate emotional distress, that ceiling often covers the full claim.
The tradeoff: small claims courts generally don’t award punitive damages, and the informal process makes it harder to force the other side to produce evidence. If you’re dealing with a sustained harassment campaign and want punitive damages on the table, file in regular civil court with an attorney.
Protective Orders to Stop Future Deliveries
If you know or suspect who’s behind the packages and you’re worried about more, a civil harassment order or restraining order gives you an enforceable tool. These orders can prohibit the sender from contacting you by any means, including mail. Violating one is a criminal offense in every state, carrying jail time and fines.
To get an order, show the court evidence of harassment and a credible reason to think it will continue. A single package may be enough in some jurisdictions, but courts are more willing when you can show a pattern or accompanying threats. Bring the police report, photographs, and any communications from the sender.
A protective order also creates a paper trail that helps you later. If the sender violates it, prosecutors have a straightforward criminal case that’s much easier to pursue than the original harassment claim.
Criminal Charges the Sender Also Faces
You can file a civil lawsuit whether or not criminal charges are brought, but the criminal exposure is real and worth understanding because it often motivates settlement. Federal law makes it a crime to mail anything that “may kill or injure another.” Section 1716 declares nonmailable all “disease germs or scabs, and all other natural or artificial articles, compositions, or material which may kill or injure another, or injure the mails or other property.”2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1716 – Injurious Articles as Nonmailable Feces, which carries bacteria and parasites, fits that language. Nobody has to actually get sick. The potential for harm is enough.
Knowingly mailing nonmailable matter carries up to one year in prison. If the sender intended to injure someone, the maximum jumps to twenty years.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 1716 – Injurious Articles as Nonmailable
USPS Publication 52 allows biological specimens like excreta to be mailed only when they qualify as “exempt” specimens shipped for routine laboratory testing, with specific packaging and labeling.3Postal Explorer. Publication 52 – Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail – USPS Packaging Instruction 6H A prank shipment doesn’t qualify, which puts the sender in violation of USPS rules on top of the criminal statute.
State charges typically include harassment, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct. A single anonymous package might support a misdemeanor harassment charge. A sustained campaign, especially with threatening notes, can lead to felony stalking charges. If the package came through a private carrier instead of USPS, the federal mail statutes don’t directly apply, but state harassment, criminal mischief, and public health laws still do.
How Intent Shapes What You Can Recover
Intent drives the outcome in both criminal and civil proceedings. Prosecutors need to show the sender acted knowingly or with the purpose of causing harm, fear, or distress. The Supreme Court has held that even a recklessness standard, meaning the sender consciously disregarded a substantial risk that their conduct would cause harm, can be enough for certain criminal charges.4Georgetown Law. The Mens Rea of True Threats – Revisiting Counterman v. Colorado
The civil burden is lower, but intent still shapes your damages. Proving the sender acted deliberately rather than accidentally opens the door to punitive awards. Circumstantial evidence counts. A falling-out with someone two weeks before the first package arrived tells a story. A credit card transaction with a prank company ties the sender directly to the act. The case gets built from the moment the package shows up, which is why preserving the evidence and reporting it right away matters more than almost anything else you do.