A 20-year-old Kentucky man was arrested Friday for stalking around a Kentucky town wearing a black and white clown costume, because people are horrible and don't know when to stop doing bad things. It's the sixth state to have publicized reports of clown sightings this year, according to the New York Daily News, though unofficial reports have trickled from other states as well.
The man, Jonathan Martin, broke a city ordinance by wearing a mask in public, also per the Daily News. The suspect tried to flee from police.
Clown sightings have made national news on recent weeks—most notably the New York Times—scaring locals in South Carolina, some of who claimed that clowns living in a rural shack were trying to lure children into the woods with candy. Some of the reports were later discredited.
Police in Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia have also received reports of clown sightings near heavily wooded areas.
Police have noted that the clown sightings are likely copycat crimes, a product of viral news stories.
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