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OGDEN — Police across the state are on alert after receiving tips of clowns threatening children.
At around 12:45 p.m. Monday, the Ogden School District put Gramercy Elementary and Mount Ford Junior High on lockout after seeing threatening posts on Facebook.
Spokesman Skyler Pyle said someone posing as a clown added students from those schools as friends on Facebook.
“Some of them have received in their feed posts that were of a threatening nature talking about clowns in the area,” Pyle said.
When asked what the threats were, Pyle told KSL she could not comment in detail since the Ogden Police Department is actively investigating the incident.
“[We're investigating the posts] just discussed … threats to the school, to the area, to the students,” Pyle said.
As a precaution, both Ogden District schools were placed on lockout status for an hour as officers canvassed the area.
"The police have not found any cause to believe that there was any legitimate threat,” Pyle said.
The Murray Police Department was also looking into clown-related incidents Monday night. Sgt. Kenny Bass said a tipster called with knowledge of a Facebook post inviting clowns to meet at Murray Park early Tuesday morning.
“They were talking about being in the park, and I don't know, causing some mischief or whatever but something to that effect,” Bass said.
Officers are concerned that if the meeting does happen, it would mean people would be in the park after hours.
“It could be nothing but we'll have officers in the area just in case,” Pyle said.
Clown threats are sweeping the nation with incidents reported in Ohio,Alabama and other states recently.
