The mayor of the town of San Marino, in California in the US, has come clean and admits throwing a baggie of dog waste onto the lawn of a fellow neighbour rather than disposing of it properly.

Mayor Dennis Kneier tells the Whittier Daily News he was walking home from a park with his wife Saturday night when they found the bag on a parkway and he picked it up and tossed it onto a walkway at the property.

Resident Philip Lao says he recognized Kneier on surveillance video and called police. They photographed the bag.

There is no police record of problems between the men, although Lao does oppose a dog park in San Marino, a wealthy suburb of Los Angeles.