Here's The First Official Scary Clown Sighting Of 2019

If 2019 wasn't enough of a horror show to make sure you would never sleep soundly again, new evolution may solidify that for you: The clowns, they are back.


On Thursday, May 9, Warner Bros. Dropped the teaser trailer for It: Chapter 2, the sequel to the 2017 blockbuster hit that updated Stephen King's malevolent force that most often manifests as Pennywise the Dancing Clown for a new audience. Chapter 2 won't hit theaters up until September 6 this year, although it seems IRL clowns are already growing restless... Or are at least practicing for It's beginning weekend some four months from now.


According to a Facebook post from police in Clarksville, Tennessee, two children announced that a gentleman in a clown outfit had seemingly attempted to lure them to his vehicle on May 9. WKRN reports that the kids ran away from the vehicle, which is entirely the right response both as soon as someone tries to lure you to a vehicle and whenever you visualize a clown overall. Nevertheless soon after police investigated, they noticed that the clown was actually just "an older man who dresses up whenever per year on his birthday as a clown and hands out candy. Today, is his birthday."


The post added that police "went to several places where he frequents and so they verified he was at those places this morning dressed up as a clown. They mention is a nice man that dresses up and is known to give out candy. Police had contact with him and he mentioned he had been dressed up as a clown and did not mean any harm. There was also nothing that indicated police that his actions were intentionally harmful or meant to scare anyone. The corporations and locations he was spotted all fall in line where he was at today." Police did not identify the man by name.


As the New York Times notes, the sighting not only coincided with the It trailer, however also harkened back to the string of viral clown sightings that took over The world wide web in past years. A 2016 report by Vox even noticed that 42 percent of people were scared of clowns, which outpaced the collection of people who mentioned they were afraid of the climate crisis at the time. (That ratio has likely changed given current predictions about ecological degradation.) That same year, Teen Vogue announced that clowns often operate in ways that seem pretty uncanny, which messes with our minds and enhances the sense of things being "off" about them.


Kelly Monfort, the President of the South East Clown Association, told the New York Times that he is aware why clowns are something of a "trigger word" for a huge piece of the population. "Of course there really are people who are like, ‘Oh, I’m scared of clowns,'" he mentioned. His go to response is always, "Oh, I’m scared of people!”


As long as no one ties balloons to sewers again, we're safe... For now.