Worth Man Describes Encounter With Creepy, Horn-Honking Clown

WORTH, IL -- A man described his disturbing encounter Monday evening with a creepy, horn-honking clown in Worth.

The Patch reader, who gave his name as Reginald Jackson, sent an email confirming that he and friend, Erskine Williams, confronted the clown in the friendly village sometime between 9 and 10 p.m. Jackson said they were driving to Jackson’s girlfriend’s house near 111th Street and the Metra train depot when something drew their attention.

“[W]hen we spotted the clown across the street from the police station on my girlfriend’s block we got out of the car and chased him until he ran through someone's backyard,” Jackson claims. “He had an object in his hand along with a horn [which] he kept honking every time we tried to get closer to him before he ran.”

A jester who goes by the moniker #IllinoisClown retweeted the Patch story after where he was said to be roaming the south suburban area on Monday, bothering people in Plainfield.

In recent months a national trend has evolved of people dressed as clowns scaring people in the streets. The sightings have accelerated with Halloween approaching. On Tuesday, a creepy clown on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus turned out to be a student working on a performance art project.

Waukegan Police also tweeted a sighting of three people dressed as clowns threatening children at an elementary school, forcing a brief lock down.

Parents and children walking to a South Side elementary school in the 6000-block of South Damen Avenue around 8:45 a.m. said a man dressed as a clown ran towards them, ABC 7-Chicago reported. The group took refuge in a nearby school to get away from him, police said.

Police have reported an uptick in social media threats involving "crazy clowns" threatening to do harm and schools and college campuses. Unspecified threats have been made against at least three colleges, including UIC, Illinois State University and Eureka College near Peoria, according to news feeds.

Read more Patch coverage on scary clown sightings:

• Clown on UIC Campus Turns Out to Be Performance Art
• 'Crazy Clown' Threats Have Chicago Heights Schools on Edge