As the Halloween season gets underway, reports are emerging from the Scottish village of Skelmorlie that a menacing clown is on the loose.
The person appears to be dressing as the haunting Pennywise from Stephen King’s It, complete with a red balloon. In the It books and film adaptations, Pennywise, a killer clown, uses red balloons as bait for children.
According to Scotland’s Daily Record, the Skelmorlie clown has been leaving red balloons dotted around the small town, home to only about 2,000 residents.
One local, who asked not to be named, told the outlet he wasn’t letting his two boys, ages 11 and 13, out at night after reported sightings of the clown.
“Whoever this is they are scaring everybody — he needs to be stopped. Someone needs to have a word with him before the police get involved or he really terrifies someone. He could give someone a heart attack.”
The man added that another boy on his street “saw the clown from his bedroom window just before he went to bed — he didn’t sleep all night.”
It seems the clown has set up a Facebook page for himself under the name Cole Deimos. The profile states he attended clown school and went to Hellgate High School.
On this page, the Skelmorlie clown posted images of himself in darkened streets and crawling around on all fours on a bridge in the village, though these posts have since been deleted, the Daily Record reports.
A resident named Pauline told the outlet that “everyone in the village” is talking about the Skelmorlie clown after seeing the Facebook posts.
“I imagine he took his photos and videos down because he was getting too much heat.”
All that remains on Cole Deimos’ Facebook page now is a video with the caption: “a message to the media.”
In the video, posted a day before Friday the 13th, the clown dares police to catch them and taunts the journalists who covered the story.
The video opens with the clown sitting on a park bench. He speaks with a voice changer, though the person’s Scottish accent can still clearly be heard.
“Should I smile for the cameras with my ‘hideous’ grin?” the clown asks.
“Or maybe Pauline’s right, perhaps I’ve gone away. ‘Too much heat,’ what a stupid thing to say,” the clown rhymes, referencing the Daily Record’s report.
“The police have been informed. Do you think that I care? They’d have to catch me first anyway, and yes, that’s a dare.”
Calling out the Daily Record journalists who reported on him, the clown adds: “This clown doesn’t want fame, glory or gold. He just wants to play in this so-called ‘sleepy town.'”
“So come and join in, and learn to fear the Skelmorlie clown,” the clown narrates over a video of him in front of the town’s welcome sign.
The comments under the clown’s Facebook post have been largely positive.
“Out of all the clowns in this village he’s the best,” one commenter wrote.
Others expressed they’ve been out in the village at night hoping to bump into the clown, but not everyone is on board with the Halloween antics. One commenter said the clown has been genuinely scaring people and needs to be stopped.
Is the Skelmorlie clown going too far? Or is it all in good fun?
Here’s hoping this isn’t a repeat of the great clown panic of 2016, when social media was flooded with sightings of “killer” clowns all over the world.
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