Authorities in South Carolina are investigating reports of a person in a clown suit attempting to lure children into the woods near an apartment complex.
(FOX)- The warning to residents came last week at the Fleetwood Manor Apartments in Greenville, S.C. when the property manager distributed a letter, Fox Carolina reported.
The letter, also posted to Facebook, stated that there had been “a lot of complaints” about a person in “clown clothing” who was “taking children or trying to lure children into the woods.”
The letter stated that police were notified and were conducting daily patrols in the area, and reminded residents that their children should not be out alone at night. The apartment complex has a 10 p.m. curfew for children.
Donna Arnold, who lives in the complex, told Fox Carolina she called the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office after her son and others reported seeing a clown behind the basketball court.
“I thought my child was seeing things,” she told the television station. “And then the next day I had about 30 kids come up to me and say, ‘Did you see the clown in the woods?”
Authorities told Fox Carolina they were called to the complex after residents reported seeing “a suspicious character, dressed in circus clown attire and white face paint, enticing kids to follow him/her into the woods.”
Another resident of the complex also reported seeing a “large-figured clown with a blinking nose” standing under a streetlight near the trash dumpsters.
Deputies spoke with children, who told them the clown tried to “persuade them into the woods further by displaying large amounts of money.”