Motueka, not far from Nelson, is a popular spot for freedom campers but when a local caught a man defecating on a grass berm outside his home he decided to film it and chased him through town.
Pacey Grooby was returning home after a night out with some friends when he spotted the man squatting with no pants on down the road from his home last Friday night.
"He was squatting on the side of the road on someone's lawn with a roll of toilet paper. After realising what it actually was I felt pretty disgusted," Mr Grooby told Seven Sharp.
Unsure whether to get out of his car, Mr Grooby pulled out his phone and recorded his confrontation with the man, then chased him through the streets of Motueka.
"Before I uploaded it to Facebook, I actually followed him through town and to a house where he went up the long driveway of but he actually went up there to fool me. It wasn't actually where he was staying because I knew the owners."
The video went viral after Mr Grooby posted on his local community Facebook page.
While he continued searching for the man over the next couple of days, checking freedom camper hot spots for the mystery squatters he had no luck.
It wasn't until two days later on Sunday morning that his search took an unusual twist of fate.
"I woke up Sunday morning to him parked up outside my house, freedom camping in his van. When I saw him there, I actually saw him urinating on the footpath."
Instead of risking his luck approaching the man again, Mr Grooby called the local council who came down to confront him.
"So I got in touch with Brent Maru, from the local TDC (Tasman District Council), he came down with a control services officer and they fined him."
Instead of moving on to surrounding parks and reserves, the freedom camper had returned to the same street, only two houses down from where he had been caught by Mr Grooby on Friday night.
While the community have had minor issues with freedom campers leaving rubbish behind in the past, he says they've never seen anything like this.
Mr Grooby says over the past few weeks allocated freedom camper areas have been extremely over-packed.
"Therefore, I think he should have been at a camping ground but instead he's decided to stay the night outside my house."
The freedom camper was served a hefty $400 fine, for breaching freedom camping bylaws as well as defecating in public.
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