Early Saturday morning in Mikwaukee, a man dressed as a clown drunkenly returned home from a Halloween party, asked his girlfriend's two children, aged 8 and 13, to come for a walk with him and proceeded to force them to drink, then dragged them into the woods. The older child told police he was forced to drink so much that he threw up. When they tried to escape, Antonio Brown picked up the older child and hung him by his feet over the railroad overpass while yelling, "If you do that again, I'm going to drop you." He was arrested after a passerby called the police when she saw a clown dragging the two screaming children into the woods.
"The children tried to run away, but Brown caught up with thim. The older child said Brown hung him upside down from the 50th Street overpass saying, "If you try that again, I'm going to drop you."
They kept going, the child told police, and Brown climbed on top of trains parked on the tracks and was hopping back and forth from one to the other. When the younger child refused to climb up, the complaint states, Brown grabbed him by the hair and tried to pull him up the train ladder.
Brown later dangled the younger child from the train, holding his neck and ankle, and threatened to kill him, the complaint states.
They started to walk home after they heard a female voice ask if they were OK, and the children said Brown forced them to say they were OK. "
When police arrived, they found three people behind some tall bushes. Antonio J. Brown, 33, of Kenosha, still wearing the clown makeup, was one of them. The other two were the children, age 13 and 8. The children were holding each other and crying uncontrollably, according to court records.
Brown is charged with two counts of physical abuse of a child and two counts of second-degree recklessly endangering safety, and faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted.
Gawker reports that there is actually a "Clown Season" this time of year -- I had no idea -- and tells of more examples of evil clowns:
"A 64-year-old man made up as a very old version of Heath Ledger's The Joker crashed his car into various trees. Police charged Dennis Lalime with drunken driving, after he allegedly smashed his 2002 Buick Regal into trees and boulders and whatever else was in his way.'
Then this:
"[...] a sinister man dressed as hamburger clown Ronald McDonald was seen lurching around the customers' cars, apparently trying to get inside them or maybe just looking for his own car. Police eventually found their alleged clown at a nearby Halloween party, but the situation quickly spiraled out of human control:
"While the troopers spoke to Andrew Hannah, his brother who was wearing a Smeagol costume, approached the troopers and began to interfere, police said. Matthew Hannah appeared to be intoxicated and shouted in an unknown language, according to police."
Arrests ensued...
And in Mexico:
"Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix was killed by an assassin clown on Saturday, authorities say. The clown wore a red nose and a red wig, and is considered armed and dangerous."
Be careful out there, people, and always be wary of clowns...even when it's not clown season.