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What’s the Deal with the Creepy Clowns?

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at App State chapter.

With Halloween right around the corner, the clown sightings that have been sweeping the nation have become even eerier. The clown sightings have spread to states across the country.

Since August of this year, sightings of creepy clowns have been reported in at least 10 different states. According to CNN: “These fiendish clowns have reportedly tried to lure women and children into the woods, chased people with knives and machetes, and yelled at people from cars. They’ve been spotted hanging out in cemeteries and they have been caught in the headlights of cars as they appear alongside desolate country roads in the dead of night.”

There isn’t much evidence to prove whether this is all a hoax or not. We do know all of this is sending chills down our spines, especially since Halloween is coming up. 

North Carolina is one of the states where there have been sightings. According to a report given to Greensboro, NC, police by a witness: “The clown wore typical big-tent get-up — a wig of red curls, too-big shoes, blue pants and a shirt with yellow polka dots — topped off with a scary mask.” The witness held a machete, according to Greensboro police, and “Knife in hand, he ran after the clown, causing the jester to flee into the woods. The witness called the police dispatcher, who told him to put down the blade.”

Offers searched the area but were unable to find anyone matching the witness’ description.

A few weeks before the North Carolina sighting, a family in Greenville, SC, told authorities “a clown tried to lure their children into the forest near their apartment,” The Washington Post reported. “Another witness told police he had spotted a clown near the dumpsters of the same complex.”

This photo was posted to the Wasco Clown instagram account on Oct. 7, 2014 with the caption, “Just thought you all should know I’m not the only one out there”. So these things are pretty freaking scary looking, real or not.

Though there have been multiple sightings, there has been a lack of police confirmation about whether these clowns exist or not.

While police continue to investigate, people on the Internet wasted no time in sharing how they would deal with a creepy clown sighting. The hashtag #IfISeeAClown was trending on Twitter the past few days:

Midterms are more scary than clowns right now.
And our favorite:

We don’t know yet if this is all a hoax or not, but we can say for sure that we’re not messing around with anyone dressed up like clowns this year. 

 

 

Images:

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2014/12/05…

Sources:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/03/health/creepy-clown-sighting-psychology/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/07/clown-sigh…

Taylor currently works in television production in New York City. Her current project was for a Sesame Work Shop show called 'Helpsters' that is now streaming on AppleTV. While at Appalachian State University, Taylor majored in Film and Creative Writing. She enjoys reality TV, college basketball, binge-watching Netflix, eating Mexican food, and cuddling with her cats. Her dream is to be a television show writer. For inquries, she can be reached at taylorpdills@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylordills/