KPHO television journalist Jonathan Lowe did a crappy thing, and now he’s paying the price.

Lowe was on assignment Monday covering a story about a former Arizona State University football player who sacrificed his family’s dog in a smoker in a fit of religious rage when nature called, the Phoenix New Times reports.

“Lowe chose to use the front yard of a residence to relieve himself,” Goodyear, Arizona police spokeswoman Lisa Kutis told the news site. “An onlooker from across the street called it in to officers. They approached him, he said he’d had to relieve himself, and they arrested him.”

According to Lowe’s KPHO news report, police arrested former Arizona State University football player Patrick Zane Thompson, 42, after he became irate with the shirt his 17-year-old daughter was wearing and burned it in a large barbeque cooker at his home.

Thompson said he had a vision earlier in the day something bad would happen to his family, and he believed his daughter’s shirt was demonic, according to the report.

“When Thompson went back into the house … he got more erratic and told his family, in front of his four minor children, that he needed to make a sacrifice of a male,” Lowe wrote. “According to the victims, Thompson stated it had to be either himself, his firstborn 6-year-old son or the family dog – a small, white poodle weighing about 15 pounds.”

Lowe reports the man then broke the dog’s neck and stuffed it in the smoker, where police and firefighters found the animal when they arrived.

What Lowe did not include in his story was the fact that he was also arrested for copping a squat in Thompson’s front yard, Death and Taxes reports.

According to the New Times:

Goodyear police haven’t released the arrest report, but the department confirms that the citation was for defecation. Kutis says the arrest took place at about 3:10 p.m., and that at the time various media outlets had been “in the neighborhood of the home where the dog incident took place.”

The New Times contacted Lowe’s news director, Dan Wilson, about his arrest, but Wilson declined to discuss what he described as a “personnel issue.”

Wilson also provided an excuse for why the news site did not report on Lowe’s troubles.

“Without a police report, we are waiting to make editorial decision based on more information, and so we’re looking for that information,” Wilson said.

Lowe was booked at the Goodyear Police station and cited with violating Goodyear code 11-1-30 prohibiting “public urination or defecation,” which is a misdemeanor that carries a potential penalty of six months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

Thompson faces multiple charges including animal cruelty, assault, threats against his family and tampering with evidence.