10 Creepy Clown Crime Facts You’ll Want To Know

Because 2016 wasn’t weird, horrible, and stressful enough, God (Fate, Odin, whomever or whatever you believe in) decided to add clowns randomly all across the US and the UK, just to see if we’re paying attention. And no, we aren’t even counting the clowns in the US election; that’s a different horrible stressful thing. So if you have no idea what’s up with all the clowns, well, the honest truth is that no one else does either, but here are 25 Creepy Clown Crime Facts You’ll Want To Know to give us all some idea of what’s going on.

10

This first Clown was sighted in Greenville, SC in August of 2016 by a little boy at an apartment complex. He saw two clowns in the woods, brightly dressed with painted faces. According to the boy’s mother, they were trying to lure him to a boarded up house nearby.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com

9

Schools have taken and are taking this very seriously. While so far it seems that it’s just a bunch of creepy people freaking everyone out for kicks and giggles, a Connecticut school district banned clown costumes and listed them as “symbols of terror” in early October. A (false) report of an armed clown also put a Massachusetts college on temporary lock-down, warnings have been sent home to parents, and even shirts and notebooks with pictures of clowns have been prohibited. That’ll be a damper in art class…

Source: http://time.com/

8

The first iteration of the clown as we know it – frilly collar, exaggerated face paint, etc – was Joseph Grimaldi who was born in the late 1700’s. He often told people he was “Grim all day.” His father was a performer in London, and Grimaldi himself was a performer his whole life.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Grimaldi

7

In mid-September, 2016, Flomoaton, Alabama, had a scare with Facebook page belonging to a “Flomo Klown” (picturing a sinister looking clown dripping in blood) that caused several schools to go on lockdown. This was due to the page posting vague threats like, “It’s going down tonight!” with handgun and laughing emojis. Police traced the Facebook back to a (very stupid) 22 year old woman who was arrested and charged with making Terrorist Threats.

Source:http://www.fox10tv.com/

6

In September, police arrested a 20-year-old man in Kentucky “dressed as a clown lurking in a wooded area” in a small town. The man was charged with wearing a mask in public and disorderly conduct. He was literally “Crouching among trees by an apartment complex.” This was his idea of a good time. You can’t do that; it’s not safe, and if you DO decide to actually harm someone as opposed to just being “creepy as anything,” police can’t identify you.

Source: http://www.npr.org/

5

According to Benjamin Radford, an expert in folklore and author of a book titled “Bad Clowns,” even when this all dies down, the clowns and the panic will come back, even if it takes a few years. They’re kind of the boogie man of Western Culture. Comforting.

Source: http://people.com/

4

Alabama has had nine arrests – NINE! – made in relation to Clowns and Clown threats. Both adults and juveniles were arrested, and the charges largely subsist of Terrorist Threats and Harassment. Pro Tip: You can’t talk about shooting up schools on Facebook, even if you’re dense enough to say, ‘It’s just a joke, bro!” We take that pretty seriously; there are laws against it. Um, duh?

Source:http://www.al.com/

3

Nice clowns (yes, there is such a thing!) and professional clown performers are mad, scared, and their businesses are being hurt. Even if you don’t like normal nice clowns, there are people that do, and there are many good, hard working people who perform as clowns and just want to make others smile. Creepy dunderheads are hurting their jobs.

Source:http://www.npr.org/

2

In early November, a woman in the UK heard a noise outside, opened the door, saw a creepy clown, closed the door, and the clown stuck a knife through the mail slot and stabbed her in the leg. Yup. Apparently the US isn’t the only country dealing with clown issues, but the UK clowns seem to be somewhat more violent.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/

1

Some of the clown sightings are believed to be viral marketing – either for horror movies or local haunted houses which seem to pop up all over the US starting in Mid-September almost every year. Once the first few sightings happened, many that followed were surely copy cats. Or, you know, the Illuminati is really made up of clowns.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/