Creepy Clown Fears Prompted Girl To Bring Knife To School

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Reports of creepy clown sightings have been on the rise nationwide recently.

Just in the past few days, a middle school school girl in Georgia took a knife to school, telling police she needed the weapon to fend off clowns.

In Chicago, 2 Investigator Dave Savini reported on bizarre clown sightings in cemeteries.

The Athens Banner-Herald reported the girl was arrested Friday amid reports and social media posts about clowns frightening children in Georgia and other states.

An Athens-Clarke County police report states the girl said she needed the knife to protect her and her family because she had heard the stories about clowns jumping out of the woods and attacking children.

The girl was arrested and released to her mother on a charge of possession of a weapon on school grounds.

Last summer, a person dressed in a clown suit, trespassed at historic Rosehill Cemetery in the dead of night.

Julia Graham told CBS 2 she was "freaked out" at the figure as it ran toward the main gate. She and her husband were driving by around 10 p.m.

"When we get closer, we realize it's a clown, which is super weird," she said.

The couple said the clown scaled the 7-foot-tall gate at the Ravenswood Avenue entrance. That feat is no easy task, especially for someone wearing a clown suit, they said.

In Alabama, schools were actually placed on lockdown over clown threats.

There turned out to be no security concern, according to reports.

However, in other cases, cases of creepy clowns turned out to be made up.