As 'bored' teens dress as clowns, victims take arms
In throes of creepy clown epidemic, teens caught by police claim they acted out of 'boredom'; younger children have taken to arming themselves with cap guns, rolling pins to fend off clowns, while teens have been caught with knives, clubs, irons.
As the creepy clown epidemic sweeping Israel continues, teens caught by police dressing up as clowns have fessed up to acting out of sheer boredom. Nevertheless, their would-be victims have decided to leave nothing to chance, taking to arming themselves with anything from cap guns to baseball clubs and knives.
In the midst of this phenomenon, Israel Police investigators found themselves opposite some unusual suspects: teenagers dressing as clowns to scare smaller children. Many of them rationalize this rather odd phenomenon with a single word: boredom.
"I was bored and wanted to have a laugh with some friends," said one minor interrogated at a Shfela police station, after being detained in character as a "creepy clown."
Police reported hundreds of complaints made by children or adults who have fallen victim to the recent plague.
"Children said they donned the masks due to 'boredom' or wanted to have some 'laughs,' especially with their friends standing on the sidelines and filming," said a source close to several investigations on the matter.
"Kids refer to it as mere mischief and called it 'just shenanigans.' They claim they never intended to harm any children beyond scaring them," the source added.
Despite these notions, local authorities and police are worried a meeting between a "creepy clown" and their intended victim will invariably end with actual violence and injuries to one or both parties.
"The clown I saw started chasing people. He held a baseball bat and yelled at anyone passing by. It was terrifying," said David, a high school student from Ashdod. In Jerusalem, a car's tires were slashed with a sign giving credit to a clown.
Despite recent incidents, an end to the clown epidemic may finally be in sight.
According to acting Mayor of Rishon Lezion Raz Kinstlich, there has been a downturn in the number of reported complaints since the beginning of Sukkot, chalked up to heightened enforcement.
Clown attacks have also become the talk of the day in schools and classroom WhatsApp chats, with children grouping together to walk to school to avoid going alone.
It seems, though, both children and adults are taking more significant steps in protecting themselves from creepy clowns, with a reported 60 percent increase in the sales of self-defense products.
The sale of pepper spray, for instance, is only permitted to persons 16 and over, but chains specializing in selling equipment to newly conscripted soldiers and hikers have reported parents of younger children coming in droves recently and purchasing pepper spray for their young ones.
The Rikushet chain of stores said 75 percent of self-defense product purchases over the last few weeks were made in the greater Tel Aviv, Shfela, Haifa and Jerusalem areas, where creepy clown attacks proliferated.
"By our estimate, Israelis have purchased 500 pepper sprays and other self-defense products such as shockers and zip ties. Supplies are actually running low," said Dudi Mantin, Rikushet CEO.
"My brother and I leave the house with a cap gun in our pants, so if we get jumped by a clown out to scare us, we can fight back. We'll just shoot at him with the cap gun and that'll scare him off," said brothers Assaf (9.5) and Itai (11.5) Halfon as they were purchasing cap guns.
Itai recalled he was set upon by a clown mere days before, as he was heading to a friend's house.
"We ran home in fear. I only remember he had a scary white head. My parents explained to us it was just bored teenagers, so we decided a pretend gun would scare them," he recounted.
Their friend, Idan, added some of his friends took to carrying knives in their bag for self-defense. "We've never been afraid of walking around our neighborhood. Now we're terrified," he said.
Amber Keren (10) said some children have been carrying a rolling pin for protection. "I'm never without my phone, and my mom takes me to friends. I never go alone," she said.
"I'll pull a toy gun out if I have to, so they think it's a real one and leave me alone," summed up 8.5 year old Udi Markowitz.
Slightly older children, unfortunately, resorted to more extreme measures of protection against creepy clowns, as five Ashkelon youths were caught by police carrying knives, clubs and irons.
The five teens, aged 13-16, were detained for questioning Sunday at a local police station on suspicion of possessing weapons.
Both uniformed and covert police forces have been patrolling the city, police said, including youth monitors, municipal police and a "parent patrol" intended to combat the masked teens terrorizing the populace.
Police have also remarked on the presence of teens congregating in public parks and readying themselves for meetings with the clowns. Searches of those same teens turned up several knives and a large number of clubs, irons and other weapons.
"We'll treat any outbreaks of violence or risk to citizens' lives extremely harshly. We call on Israel's teens to not partake in this wrongful and illegal act, but to not take the law into their own hands either, as such cases will be met with determined, uncompromising police enforcement," police said in a statement.
Police also addressed parents, saying, "Make sure your children do not take part in this dangerous recent trend or equip themselves with weapons that may easily take a life, causing criminal charges to be filed against them."
Meir Turgeman, Yishai Porat, Iris Lifshitz-Kliger and Matan Tzuri contributed to this report.
