Creepy Clown Rumors Stir Caution In Howell

Howell, NJ — The creepy clown reports that have been making the rounds of a number of towns in New Jersey and elsewhere have stirred up anxiety in Howell — needlessly, police say.

"There have been recent social media postings pertaining to a clown threat to school children and teachers and apparently information is being spread by school children, to their parents, who are then calling their local police departments and schools," Howell Township Police Chief Andrew Kudrick said in a post on the department's Facebook page.

Kudrick said law enforcement authorities around the state have been checking with the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security Counter Terrorism Watch Desk, the New Jersey Department of Education School Safety and Security Division, and with the New Jersey State Police Regional Operations and Intelligence Center, and they say there is no known credible or viable threat information regarding this posting.

"Although there have been incidents in six different states over the past few weeks of people dressed as 'creepy clowns,' chasing people and doing other stupid things, there have been 12 arrests made, including some for false reports," Kudrick said.

Several of those arrested have been juveniles, he said.

"Other than these people dressing like clowns copycatting each other, there is no known law enforcement or homeland security information pertaining to 'clown terrorists' targeting schools. This is information placed in social media for the purpose of frightening people and hysteria," Kudrick said.

As a precautionary measure and to reduce fear, the Howell Police Department increased patrols and assigned an officer to each school. There were no incidents, he said.

Reports of creepy clowns trying to entice children first began circulating in South Carolina in late August, and have spread to other states since then.

The initial reports seem to stem from an organized movie promotion and have now morphed into copycat reports throughout New Jersey, officials have said, and concerns continue to be spread through social media, via Facebook shares and Twitter reports that have been retweeted.

Some of those creepy clown reports have resulted in people being arrested and charged with making false police reports, according to a report in the New York Times.

Creepy clown, by GlitterandFrills, via Flickr, under Creative Commons license