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Haunted House Takes Steps To Contain Its Creepy Clowns

 (CBS) -- The rash of creepy clown sightings is hitting the Haunted House industry.

The clown stories began in South Carolina last August, after people made unsubstantiated reports of a clown trying to lure children into the woods.

Since then, the clown sightings and police calls have piled up. Some are hoaxes, others have ended in arrests.

This Halloween season, some haunted houses taking precautions.

Basement of the Dead has a haunted house in Aurora that is devoted to creepy clowns.

"We have at least 15 to 20 of them inside and then we have several of them running around outside," says Todd Baraniak.

Operators have had a longstanding policy for their clown actors. Performers turn in their scary costumes before leaving work. That way, they can't walk around and scare people on the sidewalk, Baraniak says.

He says their policy predates the current clown scare because the haunted house is located in downtown Aurora.

 

 

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