Sometimes we fret about local media consolidation and sometimes, on days like today, it appears the fourth estate is doing just fine in the Bay Area. Which is why you can practically smell the glee with which the San Francisco Examiner reports that a woman, apparently a delivery person for the San Francisco Chronicle, was caught on a hidden camera repeatedly relieving herself in the elevator of a building in the Marina. A delightful bit of yellow journalism, if you will.

Dan Stegink, a computer programmer who lives in the building at Chestnut and Fillmore, is credited with catching the culprit after he installed a hidden camera in the ceiling of the elevator/water closet. Stegink and the other residents quietly suffered through three months of urine stench in the elevator, which now features a disgustingly discolored patch of carpet even after it was replaced once. The building manager said it had to be cleaned "every other day," but after he complained to the Chronicle, the peeing stopped.

Although other residents in the building said they didn't report the woman because they feared she might lose her job, the woman still continues to deliver papers to the building. At the same time, Stegink's video is now on YouTube for all to gawk at, thanks to our friends at the Examiner:

For his part, the Chronicle's VP of urination circulation Mick Cohen told the Examiner that they are "looking into this situation." The Chronicle's delivery folks are independent contractors, rather than employees of the paper or their parent company the Hearst Corporation, but Cohen says they "will take quick and appropriate action as necessary."

As for the quick action this delivery woman needed to take: Stegink wondered whether she had a medical condition that made her pee breaks coincide with her stops at his building. Apparently she parks the wrong way on the sidewalk under the building's canopy every morning, with a great sense of urgency.

Meanwhile, in our experience, the Examiner has no delivery people. Just guys in trucks who chuck copies of the no-subscription-necessary daily out the window at three in the morning.

[SFEx]