Clown hysteria seems to have taken over America, and Le Moyne is no exception. There were reports of clowns lurking behind St. Mary’s and Harrison on the night of Oct. 4. Le Moyne security was called but found no evidence of clowns. They have yet to comment on the clown sighting.

In addition to Le Moyne, clowns have been spotted in downtown Syracuse and the Solvay area.  

There have been numerous reports nationwide of people dressing up as threatening clowns and standing in public locations to scare pedestrians.

The trend is catching on, and making its way towards college campuses. Hundreds of students at Pennsylvania State University participated in a mass “Killer Clown” hunt around their campus on Monday Oct. 3. One student names Addison Carson tweeted, “Three Clowns spotted at PSU allegedly. So naturally 6,000 kids mob the streets to hunt it down. I love Penn State.”

It first started in South Carolina as a practical joke, but after recordings of clown sightings went viral people from all over began dressing up as clowns in their own towns. Now, there are even specific Twitter accounts in which people submit videos of themselves getting chased by clowns or spotting them in eerie parts of town. These type of accounts have about 223,700 followers.

The “clowning” joke hasn’t lasted long though. Several clowns has been arrested and are now facing felony charges for making terrorist threats.

Many parents are being more concerned with Halloween coming up, and sending their children out trick-or-treating. With all these sightings, Halloween might see an increase of police force out walking the streets and patrolling neighborhoods.

In general, people tend to see clowns as being creepy and threatening; many attributing their fear to John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer and rapist who is known for his work during between 1972 and 1978. He was known for the clown costume he would wear and was sometimes referred to as the killer clown. Gacy was charged with killing and assaulting 33 young boys in Illinois. Both Stephen King’s novel and TV movie It have also framed people’s views on clowns.

It’s funny to think, while issues continue to stir in North Korea, one of America’s “problems” is clowns.