As "creepy" clown sightings continue to be reported across the U.S. — many of them called pranks or hoaxes by police — Anchorage has had only one sighting reported to police, despite growing concern on social media that clowns are appearing around the city.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that a nationwide wave of clown sightings has prompted criminal charges in Virginia, Louisiana and Texas cases. A high school in New Haven, Connecticut, banned clown Halloween costumes. Police even investigated a reported threat tied to clown sightings at a high school in Puyallup, Washington, this week.
In Anchorage, a few purported clown sightings have made the rounds on social media in recent days, including an unsettling photo posted on the Anchorage Scanner Joe Facebook group of a clown standing along a road in the dark. The photo was supposedly taken near Boniface Parkway and Camelot Drive and posted around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, but Alaska Dispatch News has been unable to reach the photographer to verify those details.
If a clown or clowns are stalking around in Anchorage, no one is calling police — Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Renee Oistad said none of APD's call transcripts during the month of October involved clowns.
"We are not having the calls that the Lower 48 is having," Oistad said. "Those types of reports are … folks dressed as clowns threatening people."
Asked about the photo on social media, Oistad said police dispatch records didn't list any sightings of a clown Tuesday.
"Either it didn't happen or nobody called police," Oistad said.
Police did get a report just before 4 p.m. Sept. 26, however, that "someone dressed as a clown" was riding a bicycle in Midtown traffic.
"He stopped in the middle of the intersection at Benson and Seward and, according to the caller, was refusing to move for traffic," Oistad wrote in an email. "Towards the end of the call with dispatch, the caller stated it appeared the biker was riding away. The biker was gone when police arrived to check the area."
There wasn't any malicious element reported in the call, Oistad emphasized.
"There was absolutely no accusation of the clown threatening anyone," Oistad said. "He was just in the way of traffic."
Oistad urged anyone who feels threatened – whether the assailant is dressed as a clown or not – to call APD at 907-786-8900. Oistad also offered a reminder that just wearing a clown costume isn't a violation of the law.
"The act of dressing in a costume is not illegal – it's the behavior," Oistad said. "If the person wearing the costume is not taking illegal behavior, then there's no action for us to take."