The creepy clown craze has created a fear hysteria that is sweeping the world – and now New Zealand is being caught up in this scary fad with numerous sightings being reported around the country.
Even the king of horror, US author Stephen King (some say the remake of his movie It has fuelled the craze), has has called for calm.
Police are still investigating what it believes is an isolated incident in Hamilton, where a 22-year-old woman was allegedly assaulted by two clowns in the early on Saturday morning.
The woman was walking along Memorial Drive about 3.15am on Saturday when two men dressed as clowns allegedly assaulted her.
She suffered moderate injuries.
A day before the attack, Waikato District Police posted on its Facebook page that people were “getting freaked out by kids/trolls creating fake Facebook profiles with stupid names and a clown profile picture”.
“To date we haven’t locked up any murderous clowns purging towns as they have promised.”
Their advice if you see a clown?
“Relax. Call police if you feel threatened. Maybe ask them to juggle or tie a balloon animal to see if they’re legit.”
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Over the weekend there were also reports of two clowns walking along Auckland’s southern motorway, and a man dressed as a clown was spotted by three young boys at a Porirua school last week.
A handful of Facebook pages dedicated to New Zealand clown sightings have been set up over the past week, and social media has been flooded with tales of close encounters – with varying levels of authenticity.
“The reports on social media appear to have originated in the US and police have not been aware of evidence of this occurring in New Zealand, outside of the Hamilton assault,” a police spokesperson told the NZ Herald.
When did the clown craze start?
The first reports date back to August after unsubstantiated reports surfaced that clowns were spotted trying to lure children into the woods across the USA.
The craze has also been linked to the Stephen King movie remake of It, which features the sick and twisted sewer-dwelling clown Pennywise. Some cynics believe this creepy clown thing is just a sick PR stunt.
And while early on, when it was confined just to the US, people predicted the craze would just die out, nobody saw how it would grip the globe. So how to manage this on the home front, particularly if you have terrified kids?
A fear of clowns, or coulrophobia as it’s called in clinical circles, is not unusual among adults and especially kids.
And it’s the children who may need some extra special handling while this craze runs its course.
Experts are calling on parents to be measured and moderate in how they talk to their kids about it – and maybe only raise it if they are aware of this current spate of incidents.
If your kids are on Facebook and freaking out, talk to them rationally about their fears and advise them to stay off social media for now.
And reassuring them that you will help to keep them safe can go a long way, experts add.
And if you see any freaky characters dressed as scary clowns, call the police.
