A tourist caught in the act of defecating in a public space has been fined nearly $400.

Pacey Grooby, an 18-year-old Kiwi, was on his way home in Motueka, Nelson, New Zealand from a drive when he caught the mysterious pooper on the side of the road, illuminated by his car lights.

A tourist was, according to Grooby: “laying a steamer” on the side of the road.

“What are you doing mate?” Grooby asks as he winds down his window, driving by the tourist.

“Just shittin’,” replies the squatting tourist, with a roll of toilet paper in-hand.

“That’s disgusting.”

“Yeah.”

The disgusting incident was shared by Grooby on Facebook, with the tourist seen pooping on what appears to be an otherwise tidy lawn.

Grooby told news.com.au that he then chased the man – reportedly a German tourist – and got his number plate.

“I spent the whole day on Saturday hunting through freedom camping zones in the area but could not find him,” Grooby told the outlet.

Freedom camping (or bush camping) is a term used to describe camping on land that is not a designated camping ground.

“As weird as it is, I woke up (Sunday) morning and looked out my window and there he was. Parked up, freedom camping on my street directly outside my house. He then got out and started urinating on the footpath,” he said.

According to the report, Grooby then rang a member of the local council who fined the man NZ$400 ($383) and made him clean up his poo from Friday night.

Grooby told news.com.au the local area had been “inundated with campers” in the past few weeks and that the community was getting sick of people trashing the local environment.

“Our town is truly fed up (with) these dirty tourists leaving our town a mess and taking it for granted,” Grooby said. “We have public toilets and rubbish bins everywhere in our town.

“And they still do this.”

Featured image: Washroom in the woods (iStock.com/AnthonyRosenberg)