Example from the Instagram account of "Wasco Clown".
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If you live in Kern County, California and are afraid of clowns or performance art, you might want to stay inside behind locked doors after dark. An area couple, as yet unnamed and unknown to the public, have been taking photos of themselves dressed as sullen and slightly menacing clowns holding balloons in front of well-known local landmarks then posting them to Instagram in the name of art.
The recent creepy clown trend started on social media on October 1. Photos of an eerie clown posed carrying balloons in poorly lit streets of Wasco, California appeared online. The “Wasco clown” photos were taken by a husband and wife team and posted to an Instagram account as part of a year-long art project.
Tagging their photos with vague captions urging the public to come and find them, the husband and wife clown-art team has spawned a local following, with scores of people cruising around looking for them using social media as a guide to their whereabouts. As if the idea of one night-clown wasn't bad enough for the many
coulrophobics of the world, police are actively investigating the growing presence of copycats in response to 911 calls reporting clowns wielding guns, baseball bats, knives and machetes in the ciry of Bakersfield.
The ensuing public panic, fueled by sensationalistic headlines like
Mysterious Terror-Clown Haunts Small California Town
Sinister clowns frighten residents in Central California towns
and
Mystery clowns that are terrorizing California towns at night have started carrying GUNS
has turned an October/Haloween themed art project into a minor exercise in 21st Century mass hysteria. "There's a natural phobia of clowns," Sgt. Joe Grubbs of the Bakersfield Police Department told ABC News today. "And, clearly, if someone is dressed up as a clown and holding a weapon in a threatening manner, that's going to frighten people."
While the police have received over twenty reports of evil clown sightings and menacing behavior, to date there has been only one arrest., of a minor on what are surely trumped up teach-you-a-lesson charges by frustrated police:
On Thursday, a 14-year-old boy dressed as a clown was arrested for scaring a neighborhood child on Thursday night. The teenager was charged with annoying a minor. The disturbance was one of 20 reports from Kern County in the last week of clowns terrifying children. Police have received reports of clowns wielding guns, machetes and baseball bats.
These pranks are no laughing matter to Bakersfield police. None of the clown reports have resulted in violence so far, but cops fear the trend could escalate.
“We will make arrests on this. We want this to stop,” Bakersfield Police Sgt. Joseph Grubbs told the L.A. Times.
(emphasis mine)
BAKERSFIELDNow.com, a local news site that has walked a fine line between sensationalistic drama and actual news on the subject, has taken the opportunity to set the record straight for the community today. Sounding a note of sanity above the din of panicked screeching, their latest headline scoldingly announces "The truth about clowns 'terrorizing' Bakersfield", which offers few choice morsels of reality for the local masses:
Stories about Kern County appear with screaming headlines...The facts, however, do not bear out anything resembling gun-toting, murdering clowns. At least not in Bakersfield or the rest of Kern County.
"It would be nice if they would gather their facts regarding their story," said Bakersfield police Sgt. Joe Grubbs. "We haven't had any clowns committing any types of murders. Far from it."
"We have not been able to, in any of the cases, substantiate that anybody has been a victim of a crime," said Pruitt.
(because we always arrest kids who scare other kids, no crime necessary)
and
To date, neither Bakersfield police nor the Kern County Sheriff's Office has found any evidence to substantiate any of the reports (of guns/knives/etc).
And on that note, I will leave it to you all in comments. Don't forget to check under your bed and look in the closet before you go to sleep tonight. I alsoreccommend taking a cell phone video of you locking the back door so when the OCD starts itching your mind with doubts you won't have to climb out of bed, again, to check it one last time.
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October 13, 2014
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