With just over two weeks until Halloween and after the recent creepy clown sightings across the U.S., one South Florida police department is launching a social media campaign to encourage the community to not wear clown costumes.
City of Miami police are taking the clown crisis seriously with a warning for copycat offenders in a public service announcement video they posted to Facebook Thursday.
The video shows a clown scaring a boy, who begins to run away and is struck by a car. Police said they made the video to show that clown pranks can have serious consequences with people possibly facing arrest, a lawsuit or worse.
"Some of these people are scared they are going to get robbed and they've protected themselves wither with a knife or a gun and then we have a tragedy on our hands," Miami Police Lt. Freddie Cruz said.
At The House of Costumes in Little Havana clowns come in every shape, size, and color imaginable. Despite the negative attention brought by recent creepy clown sightings across the country, and even overseas, store manager Jorge Torres says the craze continues. Clowns are one of their most popular costumes, and this Halloween is no different.
"The problem itself is not the costume or the mask, the problem is what people are doing with the costume," Torres said.
Local
Dash cam video in Wisconsin shows officers stopping clowns chasing down cars, and in Detroit a clown was spotted hanging off a city Bus. But what about South Florida?
"It's been throughout the Miami-Dade County area but in the City of Miami, I'm not familiar with any cases at this moment," Cruz said.
The problem is so big that one website created an interactive map of clown episodes, and there's a killer clowns hashtag on social media. The thought of criminals or pranksters hiding behind Halloween masks is unnerving for many parents and their little trick-or-treaters.
Martin Chan is sharing his son's clown scare.
"I picked him up and he told me there was this guy running around dressed like a clown scaring the kids on the playground," Chan said.
"If you see anything suspicious, maybe a clown hiding behind a tree or looking into a vehicle or looking into a house, absolutely call 911," Cruz said.
