Plan B Forum

A mystery clown is scaring children in Portsmouth by lurking silently in streets and shops and stroking people.



Residents have posted on social media about how the clown, wearing a scary mask and a suit, stands in streets in the town with a balloon and does not speak.

A 15-year-old schoolboy is believed to be behind the mask.

Police said they had received no criminal complaints and were not taking action.

Rebecca Hodgson wrote on Facebook the clown scared her daughters by cycling "around in circles in front of them staring at them".

Louise Stanley responded and said: "Next time call the police. He is disturbing people and upsetting them."

Catriona Smitham took photos of the clown standing on a street holding a balloon. She tweeted: "Only in Portsmouth would there be a man dressed as a clown stroking random people on the street."

‏Meanwhile, @MeggggSheeran tweeted: "Omg there is someone in Portsmouth with a clown mask running around scaring people. oh help me, I hope i never see him!!"

Others have taken a lighter view of the situation.

‏"I see only one solution. Batman," @bigfoot070188 tweeted.

The clown is said to have entered Stage Door dancewear shop and stood still without saying anything.

Shop assistant Karen Wilcock said it was an inappropriate gimmick.

"Luckily no children were in the shop at the time, but he could freak people out. In this day and age we don't need this sort of thing."

Andrea Hutchison from Preloved Portsmouth said the clown did the same at her shop.

"My daughter who's 22 hates clowns and would have had a full on hysteric if she'd seen him," she said.

She said the clown was a 15-year-old schoolboy and a regular customer, but she did not know why he was dressing up.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:Wierd but not scary.

Police said they had received no criminal complaints and were not taking action.

A 15-year-old schoolboy is believed to be behind the mask.

She said the clown was a 15-year-old schoolboy and a regular customer, but she did not know why he was dressing up.

Lord Jim wrote:

Police said they had received no criminal complaints and were not taking action.

If the guy is actually "stroking" people, (ie, touching them without their consent) then why haven't there been any criminal complaints?

And if the locals knows who he is:

A 15-year-old schoolboy is believed to be behind the mask.

She said the clown was a 15-year-old schoolboy and a regular customer, but she did not know why he was dressing up.

Then why not just send a local beat cop 'round to talk to him and his parents?

Big RR wrote:oldr--if I recall correctly, that was Tim Curry in the "It" miniseries; an earlier thread had pointed out he played one of the creepiest villains on Criminal Minds. Even Frank N. Furter was creepy in his own way (compared to the others in the Rocky Horror Picture Show). that guy can just play these demented characters well (although I saw him play Scrooge once in the 90s in a Broadway production of A Christmas Carol, and he can play regular guys as well).

Paris (AFP) - A wave of panic sparked by evil clowns stalking French towns has spread to the south of France where police on Saturday night arrested 14 teenagers dressed as the pranksters, carrying pistols, knives and baseball bats.
A police source said Sunday the group of teens were arrested in the parking lot of a high school in the Mediterranean port town of Agde, as several other complaints poured in about "armed clowns" in the region over the weekend.

In the nearby city of Montpellier a man disguised as a clown was arrested after beating up a pedestrian with an iron bar, while three motorists in different towns complained about "scary clowns" threatening them.

The phenomenon of dressing up as an evil clown and terrifying passers-by -- a trend which has also been seen in the United States and Britain -- cropped up in the north of France in early October.

In the northern French town of Bethune, a 19-year-old received a six-month suspended jail term Monday for threatening passers-by while dressed as a clown.

These "clowns" have been "mostly spotted outside schools, but also on public roads, in bushes, in a square. Their targets are often young children or teenagers, but also adults," a police source in northern France told AFP.

Theories abound as to the origin of the trend in a country where the American fear-fest Halloween has yet to take hold.