August 19, 2016 – The First Photograph
At 3:14 a.m. an anonymous user on 4chan’s /x/ board posts a single blurry photo: a figure in a cheap clown mask and striped costume standing at the edge of some woods in Greenville, South Carolina. The caption reads:
“Was taking out the trash and saw this thing just staring at my apartment building. It waved when I pulled out my phone. What the fuck, /x/?”
Within minutes the thread explodes. The boards /b/ and /pol/ get involved. Someone dubs him “Gags” after the OP claims the clown made a weird gagging sound. 4chan being 4chan quickly finds the exact apartment complex on Google Street View. Someone then posts a fake police scanner audio. Then, two days later, a group of children in Fleetwood Manor apartments tell police a clown tried to lure them into the forest with “bags of money.”
Multiple threads are posted about Gags and Clowns on multiple boards during the folllowing weeks.
August 21 – The First Real Police Report
Greenville County Sheriff’s Office – Incident Report #2016-0821-0047
“Multiple juvenile complainants stated a person dressed as a clown was attempting to lure them into the woods near Fleetwood Manor Apartments by flashing large amounts of cash and making strange noises. Complainants described the subject as wearing a white clown mask with red hair and a multicolored jumpsuit. When approached, the subject fled on foot into the treeline.”
September 5 – Ohio Gets Its First Official Clown
Columbus Police Department – Case #160905-0021
“Officers responded to reports of a male dressed as a clown attempting to grab a 12-year-old female near the 400 block of East 17th Avenue. The suspect was described as wearing a red wig, white face paint, and a multicolored clown suit. The suspect fled when the victim’s mother began screaming.”
September 28 – Reading, Ohio Bodycam Footage
Reading Police Department – Officer Michael Cogswell’s bodycam transcript (publicly released)
Dispatch: “Be advised, multiple callers reporting a male in a clown mask running through backyards on Jefferson Avenue.”
Officer: “10-4, I’ve got eyes on him… he’s running toward the creek… suspect is wearing full clown costume, red nose, rainbow wig… he just jumped the fence… I’m in foot pursuit.”
October 3 – The Kentucky Machete Clown
Flatwoods, Kentucky – Police arrest report for Jonathan Martin, 19
“Subject admitted to wearing a clown mask and brandishing a machete while chasing juveniles near the middle school. Subject stated, ‘I was just trying to scare them because of the clown thing on the internet.’ Subject charged with terroristic threatening and wanton endangerment.”
October 9 – The Tennessee Shooting
Johnson City Police Department – Incident #2016-1009-0188
“Officers responded to shots fired on Cherokee Road. Victim stated a male wearing a clown mask and black hoodie pointed a handgun at his vehicle and fired one round into the driver-side door. Shell casing recovered: 9 mm. Clown mask recovered from nearby dumpster.”
October 21 – The California Stabbing
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office – Felony assault report
“Victim stated he and friends were walking when a male in full clown makeup and rainbow wig jumped out from behind a dumpster and began chasing them with a knife. Victim sustained a 4-inch laceration to the left forearm while defending himself. Suspect fled on foot.”
September – The Meme Breaks Containment
By early September, fake clown-threat accounts flood Twitter and Facebook: @WavyTheClown, @clownwatch2016, @EvilClownSightings. They post things like:
“We see you when you’re sleeping. We know when you’re awake. Greensboro, NC – tonight.”
Professional clowns start receiving death threats. Birthday parties are cancelled nationwide. The World Clown Association issues a statement begging people to stop.
Then the sightings go real.
September 5: a 12-year-old in Ohio says a clown jumped out with a knife.
September 17: a Kentucky teen in a clown mask is arrested chasing people with a machete.
September 28: “Gags the Green Bay Clown” is filmed silently standing under streetlights holding balloons.
It turned out Gags was just a harmless art student, but Anonymous had already crowned him "the harbinger". 😂
October – Peak Clown Madness
By the first week of October the sightings are in 49 states and parts of Canada and the UK. Schools lock down. Children are kept home. Some highlights:
- Penn State students form clown-hunting mobs with baseball bats.
- A clown is stabbed in California after scaring teenagers.
- A 16-year-old in Pennsylvania is turned in by his own mother for posting clown threats.
- McDonald’s quietly benches Ronald McDonald “due to the current climate.”
- Police in Reading, Ohio release bodycam of officers chasing a clown through backyards.
- Clown incidents were also reported in Canada, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and even Fiji.
October 28–31: over 100 clown-related arrests in a single week. A man in a clown mask shoots at a car in Tennessee. A clown is beaten unconscious by a mob in Florida. On Halloween night, police in multiple states set up clown checkpoints.
The Aftermath
Then, as suddenly as it began, it vanished. The accounts went dark. The clowns disappeared. America woke up in November blinking and asking, “Did that actually happen?”
It did. And it all started with one blurry photo on the /x/ paranormal board on 4chan.
Final Verdict
THE ONLY TIME A 4chan SHITPOST BECAME A TWO-MONTH NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL EMERGENCY. What started as a simple shitpost of a joke about a clown in the woods turned into real stabbings, school lockdowns, and over 100 arrests made. In 2016 the internet discovered it could weaponise childhood nightmares, press send, and watch multiple parts of the World lose its collective mind. The 2016 4chan clown panic proved that in an age of viral fear the creepypasta writes itself, and sometimes it brings a $5 Clown mask and Worldwide mayhem with it.