Creepy Clown Sightings in More Georgia Communities

An increasingly bizarre wave of scary clown sightings in Georgia continues, with reports now coming out of Macon and Dublin.

They come on the heels of a similar report this week out of LaGrange and have police scratching their heads wondering whether they're dealing with actual criminals, mere pranksters, fake reports or a combination of the three.

On Tuesday, the Bibb County Sheriff's Office said it received a call saying some people dressed up as clowns were chasing children at a school bus stop in Macon.

The clowns, who appeared to be older kids or adults, came out of hiding in some bushes and abandoned houses near the bus stop, the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post.

"It was also reported that some of the kids have been getting friends requests on Facebook from people dressed as clowns and messages saying 'I will find you'," the sheriff's office said in the post.

No one was injured in the incident. Deputies said that while Tuesday's was the first report they'd received, children told them the clowns had been showing up for several days.

Meanwhile, a little less than an hour away in Dublin, police were fielding similar creepy-clown calls.

They haven't yet been able to determine whether any of the calls are true, though.

"We can't say for certain that someone hasn't seen anyone looking like a clown, but we have had several reports where we assigned an investigator with this situation and we have yet to substantiate," Dublin Police Chief Tim Chatman told WMAZ-TV.

In one case, someone blamed a car crash on the driver swerving to avoid someone dressed as a clown standing in the road.

In another case, Michaela Brooks told WMAZ she and her sister saw clowns on Thursday around 11 p.m. in the Middle Georgia State University parking lot.

"I hope that it was just a prank, or that they're just trying to scare people," Brooks told the station. "I saw how much it scared my little sister and that really concerned me. We have little kids in town, and if they were to see something like that, that's something they're going to remember."

As Patch reported Tuesday, LaGrange Police said on their Facebook page that they'd received "several calls" about clowns in a van, in wooded areas, trying to talk to children.

"This behavior is not cute or funny," police said in the post. "Understand that if officers see this behavior, you're going to have a conversation with them. And, if applicable, you may face criminal charges."

All of the Georgia reports come after a rash of reports of strange clown sightings centered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina.

In several of those cases, the clown or clowns were reported to be in wooded areas and trying to lure or otherwise interact with children.

Authorities in the Carolinas are still sorting out what exactly happened, but at least some of the reports there are turning out to be bogus.

A Winston-Salem man was arrested Friday for filing a false police report. He had claimed to have chased a clown into the woods.

At least one other report in Winston-Salem has been deemed fake. Police there said video surveillance in an area where clowns were reported to be talking to children showed no such activity.

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