Colorado Springs’ infamous ‘Mad Pooper’ story gets TLC documentary
Oct 26, 2026, 5:05 PM | Updated: Oct 28, 2026, 11:35 am
Colorado Springs has given the world the Air Force Academy, Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. Nearly a decade ago, it also gave the world the “Mad Pooper.” Now that story is headed to TV. TLC announced Monday that “The Mad Pooper,” a two-hour documentary special, premieres Thursday, Nov. 19. It will revisit one of the strangest unsolved mysteries in Colorado history.
If you’ve somehow forgotten, here’s the recap. In 2017, a family near Briargate Parkway and Union Boulevard said a jogger kept stopping to relieve herself outside their home, about once a week for roughly seven weeks. Their kids caught her in the act. When mom Cathy Budde asked whether she was really doing this in front of her children, the woman reportedly answered, “Yeah, sorry!” She did it even though there were public restrooms nearby. Colorado Springs police got involved. One officer said he hadn’t come across anything like it in 35 years on the job. The story went worldwide, landing in the BBC and on late-night TV, and Charmin even offered the family free toilet paper. Then the jogger vanished, and nobody was ever publicly identified.
TLC’s special uses old news footage and interviews with neighbors and former police to try to find out who she was and why she did it. The trailer has a team of investigators, a “fecal expert” who says it looks “intentional,” and a local journalist who calls it “a sort of fecal ‘Me Too’ movement in Colorado Springs.” It also hints that the team may have finally found a suspect. The trailer ends with a quote from the suspect’s WhatsApp profile, which we’ll leave to the trailer because this is a family website.
“The Mad Pooper” premieres Thursday, Nov. 19, on TLC. Check your local listings for the Mountain Time slot.
