Maine police department says it’s aware of clown sightings

School officials in Bound Brook are on alert after a student reported that a man dressed in a black robe with a painted white face and black wig appeared out of the bushes near the school. A Twitter account, @IowaClowns, has fueled these rumors.

Last week, schools in Cincinnati closed after a woman claimed to have been attacked by a knife-wielding clown – a story that was later discredited and ended in the woman’s arrest.

Swansea police said they’ve received numerous calls over the weekend and are now encouraging people who see clowns to stop posting and simply call police.

The sighting was reported in a residential area at about 11:30 p.m.in the 5800 block of Melanie Lane, near I-35W and Loop 820 in North Fort Worth, WFAA reported.

So far this year, he said, people in Spokane County have contacted authorities more than 371,000 times to report crimes, call in a tip, or pass a long a concern. Still, Wiggins said, NPD will treat the reports “as seriously as anything else we receive”.

Local reports include photos of a brightly colored van which one Facebook user captioned “klown auto in Kuna”, claiming to have seen several people dressed as clowns in the van.

It’s the latest area school district to acknowledge the nationwide trend of fake threats attached to the image of a creepy clown.

Police officers in Hobbs say that while they haven’t had any confirmed clown sightings, they’re anxious about a post circulating on social media.

“I hope it doesn’t have a negative impact, but I don’t see how it can’t because it’s increasing people’s fears for clowns”, Pierce said.

“I believe this is in relation to what is happening nationally”.

“We receive unusual phone calls all the time and this just kind of adds to it”, LeSueur said. In that case, the messages posted on social media threatened school shootings and general violence in Philadelphia.

There’s difference between wearing a clown costume and using it to harass someone. It was later said to be unrelated to “clown threats”.

There was a clown spotted with a baseball at Athens High School Monday.

“Many Texans carry firearms”, Keller PD wrote in a note posted to social media.