We also have been watching the news stories from around the country on the “creepy clown” sightings. There was a robbery of a drug store in Brownstown Twp recently where the robber wore a clown disguise. Nothing new about robbers wearing disguises while committing their crimes just not clown disguises–until recently. Troy Police warned pranksters to stay out of neighborhoods. In Lake Orion a man took a photo of a person in a clown suit walking around.
We have only been dispatched to one call and the call was made by a third party who was not on scene and could provide no details. It was in an apartment complex near the university. Oakland University has also experienced a few calls from 3rd parties but they have not yet been able to verify if there was a “scary clown” on campus. We agree it can be creepy and we wonder what they could be doing. It isn’t against the law to walk around in a clown outfit. Nonetheless, if anyone, including clowns, trespasses or harasses people or commits another crime like an assault–they can be arrested.
For those pranksters out there who find it amusing to scare people by engaging in this they should keep in mind that it could have serious consequences for them–if others feel threatened by the whole creepy clown thing they may feel that they should defend themselves and the clown could be in danger. We recommend not engaging in this practice. It could have unintended consequences.
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Recently Time magazine did a piece on the whole craze including how it seems to have started. Click here for the article.
We take each call seriously and investigate as quickly as we can. So if you see a person who is wearing a clown disguise and feel concerned or threatened in Auburn Hills, please call us as quickly as you can at 248-370-9444 to report. If you call us quickly we have the best chance of locating the individual to find out what they are doing.
This post was originally published on October 5, 2016 on Director Olko’s blog.
