Are 'Creepy Clowns' Coming to California? 'Sightings' Reported in Golden State

A disturbing trend that's been sweeping the nation in recent weeks, reigniting fears of "It" all over again, appears to be making its way west. That's right, the "creepy clowns" are coming.

So far, about a dozen people have been arrested in multiple states, and there have been creepy clown reports in at least 28 states, according to media reports.

The first creepy clown report this "season" was in South Carolina in mid-August when a group of children told a sinister tale of clowns living in an abandoned house in the woods and trying to entice them with money to follow them into the woods, The New York Times reported. Police weren’t sure at the time if the sightings were real or the product of children’s imaginations.

Since then, the craze has spread thanks to social media, with reports of clown sightings concentrated mostly on the East Coast until now. Police are getting serious about the epidemic of creepy clown reports that have resulted in school lockdowns in Reading, Ohio and Alabama.

SoCal Clowns

Just this week, social media was abuzz that clowns were spotted in the Southern California city of Temecula. The Twitter account @watch_clown, which said Wednesday they are "being forced to shut down," posted reports of five sightings in Temecula and nearby Murrieta.

Another Twitter user had even posted a photo purporting to show a clown spotted in Temecula with the message "stay alert everyone," but that has since been deleted.

Despite those "sightings," police tell Patch there have been no actual reports made to them, nor crimes committed.

"We are not dealing with any calls for service regarding clowns," Riverside County Sheriff's Department Spokesman Deputy Mike Vasquez told Patch Wednesday. The sheriff's department provides policing services to the community of Temecula.

Still, that doesn't mean they are taking the issue lightly, and they issued a statement late Tuesday night regarding what they called the "creepy clown phenomena."

"There have been several people who have expressed concern about the person(s) spotted at different locations in the city dressed as creepy clowns," Chief of Police Jeff Kubel wrote on Facebook. "While it is not illegal to wear a clown mask, illegally carrying weapons or making criminal threats to harm others will be thoroughly investigated and those responsible will face criminal charges."

Kubel told Patch via email on Wednesday that the department has officers at the schools where clowns were apparently spotted. He added that the police agency expects to hear of more clowns, since Halloween is this month.

"I'm hoping the community doesn't over-react to what is likely school aged kids doing a very foolish prank," he said. "If we can get parents of the offending kids to prevent them from any further creepy clown stunts things should settle down pretty quick."

Elsewhere in California, Lancaster police warned the public Wednesday of a new "prank" involving a group of males approaching pedestrians while wearing clown masks — and possibly carrying kitchen knives.

"At this time, our station is aware of three individual incidents throughout the city," said a statement issued by the sheriff's Lancaster Station. "In all three incidents, there was nothing taken from the victims and it appears that the group of suspects is only trying to scare the victims."

There have also been reports of "scare tactic" style videos appearing online, the sheriff's department reported.

"As we approach Halloween, we remind our citizens to stay aware of their surroundings and to call our station at (661) 948-8466 should they be a victim of an incident like this," the statement said.

The Instagram account @wearecomingtocali claims creepy clowns will be "invading" Los Angeles, Carson, Culver City, Torrance, Crenshaw, Inglewood, Pasadena, Compton, Lakewood and Palmdale.

That account's first post was made Tuesday — and by Wednesday morning had nearly 15,000 followers, begging the question: Is this all for attention?

NorCal Clowns

Even if that's the case, police in Northern California warned that posting online threats to schools and other groups even as a joke can be criminal, disruptive and harmful to students, parents and staff.

At least two school districts in Oakland and Fairfield were threatened by an anonymous party on social media early this week. The threatening posts usually refer to clowns and are similar to threats that have targeted schools across the country, Fairfield police Sgt. Jeff Osgood said.

The posts have gone viral, and copycat posts are intended to disrupt schools and scare the public, Osgood said.

The Oakland Unified School District notified parents this week that the district had received threats involving individuals dressed as clowns talking about acts of violence. The district says that its notifications were meant to inform parents, not to alarm them.

Police are watching the situation closely and dispatching extra patrols to schools named in the rumors, according to district officials.

Why are the reports spreading?

Experts have weighed in with some possible explanations. David G. Myers, a professor of psychology at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, told The New York Times the reports, which he called “mass hysteria,” play to people’s fears.

Jason D. Seacat, an associate professor of psychology at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts, said people who perpetuate the hoax with reports may just want to be part of a national news event.

“Since the event appears to be difficult to verify, the claim that one has had such an encounter is easier to make and relatively free from the risk of being called out as a fraud,” he said in an email to The Times. “So, low risk of being called out for lying and the benefit of positive attention for reporting such a claim may motivate some people to lie.”

After similar phenomena occurred in the 1980s in Boston, Loren Coleman, a cryptozoologist who studies the folklore behind mythical beasts such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, developed “The Phantom Clown Theory,” which chalked it up to mass hysteria, usually as a result of children’s reports, CNN reported.

Children aren’t that fond of clowns to begin with, according to a 2008 study in England that concluded decorating children’s wards in hospitals with clown images may give already ill children the heebie jeebies.

“As adults we make assumptions about what works for children,” Dr. Penny Curtis, a researcher with the University of Sheffield, told BBC at the time. “We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable.”

In the United States, fear of clowns may have been sparked by 1970s serial killer John Wayne Gacy, who had a children’s party gig as “Pogo the Clown” and also painted clown pictures. Scary movie clowns followed, including Pennywise, the clown from Stephen King’s 1990 movie “It.”

But even King is over the "creepy clowns" of late, posting on Twitter that it's time to "cool" it.

Hey, guys, time to cool the clown hysteria--most of em are good, cheer up the kiddies, make people laugh.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 3, 2016

– Bay City News Service, City News Service and Patch Editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.

Photo by davocano via Flickr Commons