Officer Pete Malloy
Footballguy
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Enough is enough, dammit
Enough is enough, dammit
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KBAK/KBFX) - Do a Google search with the word "clown," and the results might be surprising.
Stories about Kern County appear with screaming headlines:
-- ABC News: "Mysterious clowns terrorizing California City"
-- Time magazine: "Sinister clowns frighten residents in Central California towns"
-- Daily Mail from the United Kingdom: "Mystery clowns that are terrorizing California towns at night have started carrying guns"
-- Slate Magazine's blog, Slatest, took the clown story out of Bakersfield and expanded it across an entire geographical region: "Murderous-death clowns stalk southern California"
Those are just some of the headlines. The facts, however, do not bear out anything resembling gun-toting, murdering clowns. At least not in Bakersfield or the rest of Kern County.
"It would be nice if they would gather their facts regarding their story," said Bakersfield police Sgt. Joe Grubbs. "We haven't had any clowns committing any types of murders. Far from it."
The same sentiment is echoed by Ray Pruitt, spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff's Office.
"We have not been able to, in any of the cases, substantiate that anybody has been a victim of a crime," said Pruitt.
Grubbs and Pruitt said they have been fielding calls from media across the country regarding reports about people dressed as clowns engaged in criminal activity.
Reports of clowns roaming the streets began after a Wasco photographer began taking pictures of her husband dressed as a clown in various locations around that city as her project for October.
The photos started circulating on social media sites, and eventually a "Wasco Clown" Facebook page was created by fans.
The Wasco Clown does not involve any sort of criminal activity.
From there, police believe others decided to hijack the idea and have taken it a step further. Law enforcement began receiving calls of people dressed as clowns with weapons or acting in a suspicious manner.
To date, neither Bakersfield police nor the Kern County Sheriff's Office has found any evidence to substantiate any of the reports.
Police did arrest a 14-year-old boy last week on the 800 block of Pacheco Road for dressing as a clown, chasing and scaring kids. The boy did not have any weapons, and police said the boy told them he did it to perpetuate the clown hoax he had seen online.
Law enforcement is obligated to check out the reports.
"We're receiving these reports, we believe that they're pranks, but we can't assume that they're pranks," said Pruitt.