Creepy Clown Craze: Farmington Police Respond to 'Bobo the Friendly Clown'

Farmington, Minnesota Chief of Police Brian Lindquist has had enough of the creepy clown craze sweeping the nation.

Menacing stunts involving creepy clowns are making headlines daily. You have probably wondered what’s up with the craze that has reached a fevered pitch across the nation. Law enforcement is at a loss, too.

Lindquist said on Facebook Monday that his department was "inundated with calls in reference to an individual who as identified himself as Bobo the Friendly Clown and has suggested he was spotted in Rambling River Park and will visit students at Dodge and Boeckman schools around lunchtime today."

Bobo, if you get this message, I offer the following. I’m sorry, but you are not welcome at any of the schools for a delicious nutritious lunch. You are however, more than welcome to have lunch with me and my officers. It won’t be as tasty and the conversation probably a little too mature for you; but I have a very scary jail cell I think you would appreciate seeing.
Looking forward to making your acquaintance,
Brian Lindquist
Chief of Police

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 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.

On Tuesday, Lindquist learned more on the Bobo the Friendly Clown story. Lindquist said he received a call from angry parent who said his child was in the party responsible for Bobo. The parent said the clown was just a prank.

After the phone call, Lindquist again took to the police department's Facebook page to talk to the community about the incident:

I am going to choose my words very carefully and I’m sorry, but I also can’t share all of the details. Yesterday afternoon I received a call from a very upset parent; he identified his child as the party responsible for Bobo the friendly clown. There was no malicious intent, there was no ill will; it was merely an attempt to scare their best friend.
I spent most of the evening last night thinking how to proceed from here. I have been witness to the great benefits and the awful dangers of social media. I’ve seen people benefit from the generosity of others, I’ve seen adults ruin their careers and families and I’ve seen children brutalized and traumatized for life.
So, here’s what I’ve decided to do….
I grew up in a time when a young person figuring out how the world worked was allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. It was the preferred learning method. The most popular question in my home was, “So, what did you learn from that”?
There was no Facebook, Snap chat or Instagram when I was growing up. I didn’t have to learn those lessons. My big life lessons were to look both ways before crossing the street and don’t talk to strangers. A simpler time.
I’ve decided to simply ask you, the viewers and posters, to take two seconds before you hit the send key. You know the questions you should be asking yourself; I don’t need to spell them out.
We are done with Bobo the Clown. He doesn’t exist.
Stay safe and be kind to your neighbors.
Brian Lindquist
Chief of Police
Farmington, MN

Parents and residents appeared to appreciate the message from Lindquist. No clown sightings have been reported in the area since.

Why are the reports spreading?

Experts have weighed in with some possible explanations. David G. Myers, a professor of psychology at Hope Collegein 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.”

Beth Dalbey contributed to this report.

Image via davocano, Flickr, used under Creative Commons