Over the past few hours since our most recent blog post a bunch of clown incidents have cropped up.
ITEM: baseless clown threat to an Ohio school.
According to Chief of Police Chad Duensing, a student came across an image of a clown on her Instagram account from “bob_the_clown_666” stating “I’m coming to keystone high today.”
“There was no real threat,” Duensing said. “We were made aware of a post concerning a clown. We had officers, along with our SRO (school resource officer) conduct extra patrol.”
ITEM: People dressed as clowns robbed stories in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In both cases, the person displayed a handgun and cash was taken. Police also say they were dressed as clowns in both robberies.
ITEM: a clown threat alerted a Vermont high school.
Two students told a police officer assigned to Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans they had received text messages from someone identifying themselves as "Clide Daklowns." The texts indicated that clowns were coming to scare BFA and Missisquoi Valley Union school students this Friday, according to a police statement.
ITEM: Police responded to a clown threat in Chicago, Illinois.
ITEM: Indiana police Facebooked about a spate of clown threats.
So has this largely become a giant prank meme, with a handful of criminals and loonies acting out?
(thanks to Barbara Sawhill, Erik A. Hanson, Amanda Lee, and Tatiana Benet)
New item: Boy dons creepy clown mask and panics students at Williston, VT highschool (http://www.wcax.com/story/33325362/creepy-clown-panics-students-staff-at-vt-school)
Posted by: Amanda Lee | October 05, 2016 at 19:28
Hey Bryan --
You write above, "People dressed as clowns robbed stories in Ann Arbor, Michigan".
Did they rob them from a book-story? I suppose, Ann Arbor being a university town, that's more or less par for the course. Or is this an emergent part of your New Digital Storytelling investigation?
;)
Be well, my friend!
Posted by: Charles Cameron | October 05, 2016 at 20:41