Many people are familiar with the reports of creepy clowns attempting to lure kids into the woods, mainly in South Carolina. Since these reports have started going around copycats have been spurring up in cities all over the country. One of the cities now, is Buckhannon, WV.

Last Tuesday, September 20^th, 2 clowns were spotted out in Buckhannon. One clown was seen in the McDonald’s parking lot less than a mile from the college campus. The other was spotted on campus at the Performing Arts Center. One student claimed that the clown on campus followed her home that night, but never actually did anything. When she noticed he was following her she turned on her flashlight and continued walking, fearful that if she ran, so would he.

It’s believed that these two clowns are merely copycats that are trying to freak people out and have too much free time on their hands. They don’t appear to actually be dangerous at all. However, the clowning around didn’t stop on Tuesday night. On Thursday night, September 22^nd, more people decide to join in on the jokes. That night there were groups of college students walking around with baseball bats, groups with golf clubs, and just groups driving around in their cars, all claiming to be “clown hunting”.

Thursday night was the night everything got a little more serious. Rumors started spreading like wildfire around the college campus by word of mouth and through social media. While not much is confirmed, and most of the rumors are probably not true, a few things were confirmed through the police scanner. Thursday night there were reports of clowns with hammers near the dollar store. Everybody seemed to go out armed this night. The clowns were reported to be on foot after abandoning their car in the near area and walking around with hammers. It is unknown if the clowns actually did any damage.

Local high school students also reported that when pulling into the McDonald’s parking lot on Thursday night, they were followed and surrounded by 3 clowns. They did not wield hammers and immediately took off their masks and ran off when a nearby man yelled at them. So just how many clowns are in Buckhannon? There could be more every night, there could be a different one every night, or maybe it’s the same few with multiple clown masks, which is more unlikely, but it’s hard to tell.

Officers on the police scanner also discussed “shaking, scared students” and mentioned how they wished they had gotten more information from them about which clown it is. I understood that as clowns seeming to be emotionally terrorizing people around town.

What do we have to take away from all of this? The clowns still may not be physically harmful, but if you have a phobia of clowns (or generally don’t like being followed by masked men with hammers) it’s probably best for you to stay inside until all of this funny business is taken care of and settled. This may not be, however, until after Halloween, which I assume is only going to make all of the clown sightings increase exponentially. At the end of the day, all of the Buckhannon clowns seem to be just copycats looking to get a rise out of people. So, don’t ignore all of the rumors. They are out there, according to the cops they did have hammers, and they are approaching people. Stay safe, and don’t go out alone at night.