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Kentucky Clown Arrest: After Weeks Of U.S. Sightings, 20-Year-Old Jonathan Martin Is Picked Up For Lurking In Woods In Costume

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 15:31 PST, Sep 23, 2016

Summer 2016 could go down in history as “the summer of the clowns” with random and inexplicable sightings of creepy clowns reported over multiple U.S. states. Now, a Kentucky clown arrest could spell a break in the phenomenon. After months of reported clown sightings across South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky, and several other states, police have finally arrested a suspect in a clown costume in Kentucky.

Could it be the end of the summer of the clowns?

Law enforcement departments across multiple jurisdictions sure hope so, as Friday’s Kentucky clown arrest hopefully marks a turning point in a summer where children across the nation have been lured into the woods and were even reportedly chased with weapons by creepy clowns.

The summer of the clowns, which has led to the Kentucky clown arrest, reported by the BBC, began in South Carolina at one seemingly innocuous apartment complex. It was there that children first began to report to their parents that they were being stalked by mysterious and creepy clowns. Like the clown arrested in Kentucky on Friday, the South Carolina clowns were lurking in the woods. They were reportedly offering children candy and money in an attempt to lure them away. Despite concerted police involvement in the matter and a widespread, multi-state investigation into creepy clown sightings, no arrest was ever made.

In fact, the U.S. clown sightings of the summer of 2016 were noted as inexplicable because of their lack of evidence. Despite the multitude of credible witnesses, no real evidence of the existence of a clown (let alone multiple clowns) was ever discovered. As the clown sightings continued to expand from South Carolina to North Carolina to Ohio, and now even Kentucky, police were left with no evidence and thousands of concerned parents worried about their children’s safety.

Friday’s clown arrest in Kentucky could change all that. It could lend credence to the theory that the clown sightings were an isolated prank that resulted in dozens of copy cat clowns due to the publicity that the clown sightings incited. After all, the initial South Carolina clown sighting (which was so pervasive that it resulted in an apartment complex’s management issuing a warning letter to residents to keep an eye on their children) seemed to spread like wildfire, and too far and wide for all of the clown sightings across multiple states to be connected.

On Friday afternoon, at about 1 p.m. EST, 20-year-old Jonathan Martin was arrested in Kentucky wearing full clown regalia. Authorities described his attire as “full clown costume,” and just before his arrest, he was found hiding in a wooded area. Lurking really, and right next to a Middlesboro, Kentucky, apartment complex.

According to Kentucky law enforcement, they were made aware of the potential clown problem when multiple people recently reported a Kentucky clown trying to lure children into the local woods.

Prior to the Friday clown arrest in Kentucky, local police had warned locals that they needed to lay off the clown thing. Barbourville police even went so far as to issue an online statement alerting Kentucky residents that dressing up as a clown in public could lead to their arrest.

“Dressing as a clown and driving, walking or standing in public can create a dangerous situation for you and others. While dressing up is not, in and of itself against the law, doing so in public and thereby creating an unnecessary sense of alarm is illegal.”

With regard to the Middlesboro, Kentucky, clown arrest, Jonathan Martin was charged with wearing a mask in public and disorderly conduct. He was reportedly wearing a full black-and-white clown costume, including a mask, when he was arrested while lurking in the Kentucky woods.

[Image via Facebook]

A clown in Waco, Kentucky, was recently photographed wearing a similarly creepy costume. That pic was shared on social media.

While the Kentucky clown arrest was the first arrested creepy clown of the summer, the summer of the clowns has resulted in several other arrests for clown-related shenanigans.

Among the arrests for clown-related crimes this summer was a 24-year-old in North Carolina, who was charged with falsifying a police report for claiming a clown had knocked on his window. A Georgia 11-year-old was also arrested on weapons charges. She brought a knife to school because she claimed to be in fear of the clowns reportedly stalking and attacking U.S. children.

What do you think? Do you think the Kentucky clown arrest could spell the end of the summer of the clowns, or are we in store for more to come?

[Featured Image by Bell County Detention Center]

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