'Scary Clown' Rumors Send UConn Students into the Cemetery and Streets With Hockey Sticks and Golf Clubs

STORRS, CT — The hysteria over creepy clowns took over the University of Connecticut campus on Monday night in a fracas involving hundreds of students — many armed with hockey sticks and golf clubs — that spilled into early Tuesday morning, a police report indicates.

According to a police report, at 10:43 p.m., the UConn police dispatch center began began receiving 911 and routine calls regarding people dressed as clowns being sighted on campus, according to a police report.

Until 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, UConn police received about 30 calls regarding clowns on campus, according to a report.

Most of the calls were people stating they heard that clowns were on campus, but they admitted not actually seeing them, according to a police report.

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A few callers reported seeing clowns in the area of the Storrs Cemetery, and the Towers and Husky Village housing complexes, according to a police report.

Several UConn police units were dispatched to the area to look for the clowns and no clowns were ever found, according to a police report.

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The rumors spread rampant around social media and several groups of students began exiting their dormitories to look for the clowns, a university official said.

Several of the students had golf clubs or hockey sticks they intended to use as weapons, according to a police report.

The number of students exiting North Campus and the Towers complex was in the hundreds, according to a police report.

When asked if it resembled a scene out of "Fankenstein," UConn Deputy Spokesman Tom Breen said, "Seriously ... it did."

Rumors spread to include the campus being in "lockdown" mode, according to a police report.

"This appears to be an out of control rumor that spread through the community very quickly causing alarm to several people," police said in a report. "Several students referenced that Sacred Heart University and Quinnipiac University were also in lockdown because of clown sightings. Both Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart universities were contacted and both schools stated the same hoax/rumor spread through their schools with no confirmed sightings of clowns."

UConn police said the incident, "stems from a national trend where people have dressed up as clowns scaring people," UConn police said in a report. Authorities in other towns across the state have reported similar rumors.

"Several of these incidents had led to violent altercations throughout the country, and in Connecticut. The rumor of the clown sighting spread through social media in a matter of minutes making it very difficult for police to dispel the rumor," police concluded in a report.

At 1 a.m. Tuesday, the campus had "calmed down" and "the vast majority of crowds had returned to their respective buildings," police said in a report.

No people dressed as clowns were ever located by police, and the reports stopped coming in as police entered the areas searching, according to a police report.

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