The Stoop is accustomed to sniffing out stories - but this is ridiculous.

A foul smell reminiscent of an over-capacity sewage treatment plant on a rainy day wafted over Brooklyn Heights early this week, prompting residents to wonder if every toilet in the neighborhood had spontaneously combusted.

The truth was much more down to earth.

"It was just fertilizer," said Parks Department spokesman Phil Abramson, who explained that the agency had simply laid down a fresh coat of dung in Cadman Plaza Park, which is being rehabbed.

"It just needs a couple of days to decompose completely and the smell will dissipate," assured Abramson.

He was right. By the middle of the week, Brooklyn Heights was finally back to smelling like a city, not a farm.