ONE POLICE PLAZA — The NYPD has a message for New Yorkers ahead of Halloween: Don't fear the creepy clowns.
There have been dozens of reported sightings of terrifying-looking clowns across the country and even reports that scary clowns have tried to lure kids into the woods.
Clown threats have even popped up over social media in the New York City area, NYPD Deputy Counterterrorism Commissioner John Miller said Monday.
But after the NYPD's threat analysis unit looked into it, police say there's nothing to fear.
"I guess our main message is: 'Don't believe the hype and don't be afraid of the clowns,'" Miller said during a crime briefing at police headquarters.
So far, the creepy clown sightings have popped up in about 20 states. Miller says they originated in North Carolina in 2016, but reports are that they've been an issue since 1981.
"We've traced some of these back to individuals, some of these back to fake websites," Miller said.
The number of threats generally rises as Halloween approaches, he said.
"We've drilled down this in New York as we've had different Facebook threats...different online threats. So far we've found none of these to be credible," said Miller.
Even the report of a creepy clown trying to lure a child into the woods in South Carolina couldn't be substantiated by police.
Still, the NYPD isn't taking any chances. The 109th Precinct in Flushing tweeted out a warning about the hoaxes early Monday.
The increase in creepy clown sightings is dangerous. It causes panic & alarm. Please don't take part in this #109pct pic.twitter.com/zHRLmp38r2
— NYPD 109th Precinct (@NYPD109Pct) October 3, 2016
The NYPD is trying to not overreact to these reports.
"We have tried to avoid falling into the trap of putting extra police protection or presence where we've had these," Miller said.
"Again, we're tracking them, we're tracing them but our people that deal in the threat world everyday and assess these threats have found none of them to be credible," he added.
