News Digest

Actual (insane?) clown posse creeps in rural California

Reports of creepy clowns carrying knives and other weapons have been scaring people in the American town of Bakersfield, California for the past week, police said. In the latest incident, a person telephoned the Bakersfield Police Department on Saturday night, reporting a clown armed with a firearm, said Lieutenant Jason Matson. “We’ve been having sightings all over the city,” Matson said. At least one of the reports was not a hoax - police arrested a teen on Friday who had dressed up as a clown and was chasing children on the west side of town, Matson said. The juvenile, whose name was not released, said he was doing it to perpetrate a hoax he had seen online.

They range from anywhere from a guy carrying a gun to a guy carrying a knife running up to houses.

Lieutenant Jason Matson

This isn’t the first time a mysterious clown has cropped up in an American community. Earlier this year, residents on Staten Island, in New York City, reported seeing a silent clown — loosely resembling the Pennywise character from the Stephen King book “It” — throughout the borough holding a bouquet of balloons and waving at passers-by. It turned out the clown was part of a viral marketing stunt by a Staten Island film company.