Police in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, put out a public service advisory this week, saying officers there are “not clowning around” about the troubling, creepy clown sightings that are on the rise throughout the country. The two-minute video, posted on YouTube, starts with a fictional account of an officer responding to a report of a clown harassing a young girl.
After telling the girl not to worry, the footage cuts to a police cruiser pulling up alongside a scary-looking clown.
“Hey, you the clown that was scaring the kids back there?” he asks.
“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t, what are you gonna do about it?” he responds, prompting the officer to exit his car and approach him. “What are you gonna do about it, huh? Tough guy? What, by yourself?” It’s then that some circus music plays and about a dozen other Dartmouth police officers exit the vehicle and surround the offending clown.
“It’s not what I’m going to do,” the first officer replies as the clown surrenders. “It’s what we’re gonna do.”
The video ends with Detective Kyle Costa telling viewers that the department is taking a “zero tolerance stance on the recent clown craze plaguing the nation.”
“Please keep in mind that disturbing one’s peace, trespassing and enticing of a child are arrestable offenses, and that anyone who partakes in this senseless and potentially dangerous behavior may be subject to arrest under Massachusetts General Laws,” he said. “Remember that if you want to act like a clown, we have no problem treating you like one,” he concludes.
A few in the Bay State have already met that fate: a Rehoboth teenager was arrested for allegedlytweeting clown-related threats last week, and a dad in Auburn is now facing charges after reportedly scaring kids on a school bus by following them in a clown mask.
VIDEO: Dartmouth Police produce PSA that warns against clown pranks
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