Clown Horror Movie 'It' Marks Start of Halloween Season

Fall is a beautiful time of year. With changing leaves, apple cider, football games, and pumpkin flavored everything, what's not to like about the changing of the seasons? Well, as anyone with a fear of clowns may remember, this time last year, the streets were flooded with creepy clowns. Clowns were everywhere, and The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC blog even wrote about the clown sighting, as what started out as a creepy, but generally harmless prank, ended up having deadly consequences.

Readers may recall that a 16-year old boy in Reading, Pennsylvania died after getting into a fight with someone dressed as a clown, and in Wisconsin, clowns were chasing cars in the streets. Right here in Michigan, a clown reportedly attacked a 7-year old in Sterling Heights. As a result of the creepy clown craze, many establishments started banning people in clown costumes from entering, and some halloween stores stopped selling clown costumes all together. It was a bizarre and terrifying phenomenon that preoccupied Americans throughout the fall of last year.

This Fall, while there have yet to be reports of actual clown sightings, one famous one is leaving his calling card in various cities around the world. Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, which was first made into a miniseries that debuted in 1990, has been rebooted into a movie, and premiered on September 8, 2017. Leading up to the release, the trademark of Pennywise the killer clown, a red balloon tied to a storm grate, has been found in cities around the world. On September 5, 2017, in a now viral Facebook post, the Lititz Borough Police Department in Pennsylvania reported finding red balloons tied to storm grates throughout their town. Down under, in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, pedestrians also noticed the balloons popping up on their streets. Luckily for all of us, it does not appear as though Pennywise was behind it. In Pennsylvania, 5 teenaged girls admitted to placing the balloons as a way to scare their classmates who were excited about the movie. In Australia, the red balloons were used as a promotional campaign for the release of the movie.

Spooky pranks such as dressing up as a clown or leaving red balloons around town may seem fun and innocent, but the consequences can go much further than planned. Trying to scare people may seem harmless enough, but what if those people are driving a car? Motorists who are calmly driving down the road are likely to be startled at best and petrified at worst, by a clown jumping out into the road, seeming coming out of thin air, and chasing them down the road. Being scared while operating a motor vehicle could potentially result in the driver taking their focus off of the road, which for even a second could cause a car collision. Seeing a red on a grate while passing through an intersection could have a similar distracted driving car crash effect. Even if people aren't scared by seeing the balloon and realizing it's implication, they could take their hands off the wheel to point it out to a friend or try and take a picture.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,477 people died in 2015 alone, due to distracted driving accidents. While many people associate distracted driving with texting or talking on a cell phone, being chased by a clown or seeing red balloons in your street can be pretty distracting too. Nobody wants to call their car insurance company or a car accident lawyer and have to tell the embarrassing story of how they totaled their car because they saw a red balloon coming out of the sewer!

So, leading up to Halloween this year, everyone should remember to have a good time, but to have a safe time, by doing things that don't involve public pranks.

Cell phone related distracted driving accidents are not the only kind of distracted driving car crash. Whether it's a hyper pet in the back seat or a creepy Halloween decoration, anything that momentarily causes a driver to take their eyes off the road could cause a car crash. If you or a loved one have been the victim of a distracted driving car collision, call The Michigan Law Firm, PLLC at 844.4MI.FIRM for a free legal consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. 

The Creepy Clown Craze Is Sweeping The Nation

Sightings of creepy clowns have become far to common of an occurrence in the last month and have only been increasing with Halloween around the corner. What started as a joke is not something many people are finding funny anymore. There have been reports of everything from arrests to even a death that has been attributed to these types of clown incidents. Just last month, the death of a 16-year-old in Reading, Pennsylvania was attributed to someone wearing a clown mask. According to Fox News, police in eastern Pennsylvania found a 16-year-old who was stabbed to death during a fight that broke out after a person showed up wearing a clown mask. Authorities said the incident happened the night of Sunday, September 25th around 8:30 p.m. in Reading, located about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

It appears as it came out of nowhere, but the clown craze quickly swept the nation. In another crazy story involving clowns, a Wisconsin couple is facing child neglect charges after they allegedly left their 4-year-old child at home for hours to take part in a “creepy clown” prank. According to NBC Chicago, during the early morning hours on Friday, October 9th, police received reports of two men in clown masks chasing vehicles in Menasha, near Green Bay. A 20-year-old man and a 29-year-old man were found at the intersection of Appleton Road and Midway Road dressed in full clown costumes, according to the Menasha Police Department, as dash-cam video recorded police taking them into custody. A 26-year-old woman was also found in the area and is accused of driving the two men around during the “gag,” police said in a news release. Police said their investigation later revealed the woman and the 29-year-old man had left their 4-year-old child at home unattended for “a minimum of a few hours while they were out participating in this prank.” The child was placed outside of the home by the Department of Human Services and the parents have been referred to court on charges of child neglect. The 20-year-old man was not charged in the incident.

Clown incidents have become so dangerous, that now clown costumes and clown masks are being banned from stores, and even whole counties. According to USA Today, Kemper County in Mississippi has made it illegal for any public appearance of clowns through November 1st, the day after Halloween. So, any children or adults planning on being a clown for Halloween, will have to choose another costume. County officials deemed the recent clown-scares sweeping the nation as justification for the decision to make clown appearances illegal until the day after Halloween. Those who dare to put on a clown costume, mask, or makeup are subject to a fine up to $150 if they are caught by the local sheriff's office.

Some companies are also making the decision to not offer clown masks for purchase in stores or online. According to CNN Money, Target decided two weeks before Halloween that they would pull some clown masks off their shelves and out of their online store after sightings of menacing clowns across the country. "Given the current environment," Target spokesman Joshua Thomas said, "We have made the decision to remove a variety of clown masks from our assortment, both in stores and online." Home Depot took a similar step last month and pulled a Halloween decoration called the Scary Peeper Creeper from its stores in Canada following complaints from shoppers.

Clown have also been spotted here, in Michigan with one such sighting in Sterling Heights. According to The Detroit News, Police are investigating claims that people dressed up as clowns attacked a 7-year-old boy and scared two women in Sterling Heights, the latest in a series of Metro Detroit scary clown sightings. The child reported someone wearing a clown mask with “red hair, a red nose and red facial features” approached him outside his home on the night of Tuesday, October 4th. The person, whose gender was unclear, then allegedly wielded an object and scratched the youth’s arm before fleeing on foot, the child told authorities. Broadcast media reports said the suspected assailant had a knife, but police would not confirm that. Fortunately, The boy was not seriously hurt in the attack.

Some of these incidents have proven to cause harm or even be fatal, which makes clowns a serious problem. It's important to know that this kind of action can result in problems for not only those who witness creepy clowns, but also for those who are just trying to have fun. Victims of clown sighting may try to attack or even shoot clowns who get the jump on them causing harm to both parties. Others may even suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder from the fright of seeing and fending off a clown attacker. And in the instance that one of the parties is in a car, the sight of a clown is scary enough to cause drivers or pedestrians to loose their wits for a moment, causing a car accident. Pulling silly pranks just for a laugh is not worth the damage that can and has been caused in these incidents.

Have you or anyone you know been injured due to a distracted driver or have been involved in an accident caused by a distraction? If so, call The Michigan Law Firm today. Our attorneys are highly experienced in dealing with all types of accident cases and will work to get you the help that you need. Call us today, at 844.4MI.FIRM, for a free consultation.