“Don’t be afraid of the clowns.”
The NYPD’s terror chief assured New Yorkers Monday that there’s no reason to fear grown men with white-painted faces popping up across America — including the New York area.
“Don’t believe the hype, and don’t be afraid of the clowns. Our people who track these threats have found none of these to be credible,” John Miller, deputy commissioner for counterterrorism and intelligence, said at a press conference.
The NYPD investigated the online threats by the supposed scary clowns — made to schools in Queens and Long Island last week — and found it’s likely the work of a bunch of bozos, according to Miller and other police sources.
“We’ve traced some of these back to individuals, some of these back to fake Web sites. We see these originating out of North Carolina in 2016 and spawning itself on the Internet only,” he said.
“Needless to say, we’re tracking it, but we don’t see any real threat here,” he added.
Cops on Sunday investigated a Facebook threat made against Francis Lewis High School and Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, police sources said.
“Coming to kill y’all on Wednesday. Can’t wait to have fun,” a Facebook user who calls himself “Billy Clownsmith” posted.
Spooked students told their parents and a 37-year-old mother called police, who interviewed students about possible ties to the Facebook user.
Cops later determined the scary message may be part of a nationwide hoax in which people posing as creepy clowns have made threats in roughly 20 states, sparking comparisons to the terrifying Stephen King book “It,” in the past month.
The Facebook page belonging to “Billy Clownsmith” was no longer active on Monday.
Red-nosed rebels also caused a stir Friday when two Long Island district schools were put on lockdown and kids were banned from playing outside after scary-clown sightings and online threats.
Long Island cops got two calls Wednesday about clowns, including one about a person dressed as a “menacing” clown in North Babylon, and another about a bizarre group of clowns hopping in front of cars in Brentwood, cops said.
Clown sightings and threats also have been reported in New Jersey, Oregon, Ohio, South Carolina, Alabama and other states in recent weeks.