Township police in Southwestern Berks would hold illegal immigrants for immigration agents

by Steve Reinbrecht

Police in Lower Heidelberg and South Heidelberg would notify federal immigration authorities if they contact someone in the country illegally.

Across the United States, some communities – so-called “sanctuary” cities, for example – vow to protect immigrants who are here illegally by not cooperating with federal immigration agents. For example, they prohibit their police from notifying immigration officials if they have someone on an ICE detainer.

Those who support such protection say it makes communities safer. Illegal immigrants would refrain from reporting crime or otherwise cooperating with police if they had to worry about being identified and detained. Supporters cite research that shows immigrants of any status are less likely to commit crime than non-immigrants.

Critics, including President Trump and many mostly Republican leaders, say the detainees are criminals who tend to commit crimes and take jobs from citizens.

Lower Heidelberg Police Chief W. Thomas Deiterich said the township does not have a policy regarding officers asking about residency status or immigration status.

If someone has a federal immigration detainer, the department will contact immigration officials and have them come, he told me in an e-mail.

An immigration detainer is an official request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to another law enforcement agency, such as a state or local jail, that the local agency notify ICE before releasing an individual so that ICE can arrange to take over custody.

Refugees or immigrants have not caused crime or trouble in the township, Deiterich wrote.

South of Penn Avenue, in South Heidelberg, the police department’s policy is to notify ICE “in the event we would contact someone who is in the country illegally” and “let them decide what they would want to do with the person.”

There have been no documented crimes in South Heidelberg attributed to any person who is in this country in an undocumented status since July, when he became chief, Chief Barry Whitmoyer wrote.

He doesn’t believe people are discouraged from reporting crimes because of potential cooperation between police and immigration agents, he wrote.

Sinking Spring Chief Lee Schweyer and Western Berks Chief William Schlichter did not respond to my questions for this post.

Bank robbery, assaults, burglary top Southwestern Berks crime reports in January

by Steve Reinbrecht

A handful of serious crimes were reported in Southwestern Berks in January.

Someone in a mask robbed the Wells Fargo bank in Robesonia on Tuesday, Jan. 10.

A simple assault was reported about 8:15 p.m. Jan. 3, Tuesday, in the 100 block of West Penn Avenue in Wernersville.

A residential burglary was reported about 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30, in the first block of West Penn Avenue in Wernersville.

Western Berks Police Chief William Schlichter did not return several calls asking about those reports.

The county district attorney’s office reported an aggravated assault about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 in the 500 block of Erich Street. No one from the DA’s office returned my calls.

But as usual, the 20,000 residents or so in Wernersville, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring lived in relative peace and safety in January, measured by police reports and 9-1-1 calls. 

All together, police reported 46 crimes in the four municipalities in January, up from the 43 reported in December.

As usual, most of the violence appeared to be domestic.

In January, 9-1-1 calls for domestic problems were reported on Brownsville Road and East College and Penn avenues in Lower Heidelberg.

In Sinking Spring, domestic calls came from James Street, Penn and Woodrow avenues and Michigan and Oneida drives.

In South Heidelberg, domestic trouble was reported on Balthaser, Mountain Top and Golf roads and Longview drive.

In Wernersville, on Beckley and South Reber streets and West Penn Avenue.

Southwestern Berks County was very safe in 2016, but evil and horror did strike

by Steve Reinbrecht

There were no riots, acts of terror, beheadings or kidnappings in Southwestern Berks County, an area of about 20,000 people, in 2016 – although there was a mass shooting and a fatal fire, and a child was raped.

Across Berks County, 37 people died on roads in 2016, though there were no traffic fatalities in Sinking Spring, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg,or Wernersville, according to the Berks coroner’s office.

Berks followed the national trend of rising heroin deaths in 2016. At least 37 people died of heroin in the county, surpassing the total of 27 in 2015, according to the Reading Eagle.

Only two were reported in Southwestern Berks in 2016. One victim died at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center and one died in Sinking Spring.

Mass shootings – unimaginably horrible but statistically very rare – get a lot of attention but little legislative response. One organization counted more than 340 mass-shooting attacks in the United States last year, which killed more than 400 people and wounded nearly 1,400.

And like the result of a terrible lottery, there was one mass shooting in Southwestern Berks. On Aug. 6, Mark Short, 40, shot to death his wife, Megan, 33; his daughters, Lianna, 8; and Willow, 2; his son, Mark, 5, and their dog. He then shot and killed himself. He had bought the gun in Lancaster County and destroyed his family the day his wife had planned to leave him.

In March, a 12-year-old was raped in Sinking Spring. Constables arrested a 27-year-old man from Reading in November.

Over the year, police counted 44 assaults in the four municipalities, according to records they send to state police. I believe most of the violent crime in Southwestern Berks involves men beating up their partners. As far as I know, crimefighters don’t, for their records, distinguish between you getting beat up in a bar by a stranger or in your living room by a family member.

Watching for drunken drivers certainly keeps the area safer. Police in Southwestern Berks reported 29 DUI arrests in 2016, though Western Berks reported zero, which could be a mistake. Officials from Western Berks, which covers Wernersville and Robesonia, were not available.

Smoking pot for fun is legal now in eight states, but not in Pennsylvania. Local police made 18 arrests for possessing marijuana, according to the state police records.

Robberies are scary – somebody taking something from you by force or threat. No muggings were reported, but there were two bank robberies. The man who robbed the M&T bank on Penn Avenue in South Heidelberg in August was captured. The woman who robbed the OneMain Financial in Lower Heidelberg and probably another bank in Spring Township has not been caught.

Burglaries are scary too and more common. Police reported 25 in Southwestern Berks. Five of them were cleared.

A woman died after jumping from the third floor
of an apartment building in Sinking Spring as a fire destroyed it. State police said the cause was undetermined. A local official told me the cause was electrical.

I wonder if anybody wrote a report about how her death could have been prevented.

I feel very confident in saying that we are all about as safe as can be out here. We have honest, competent and professional police officers. Residents who look out for each other and have a lot to lose.

If you fear violence, however, it exists here, mostly in attacks in the closed-off rooms of homes, on spouses, lovers, children and family members.

State is clamping GPS tracking devices onto sex offenders at Wernersville corrections center

by Steve Reinbrecht

State officials have been locking GPS devices onto sex offenders who live at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center.

Typical tracking device, from Wikipedia

In all, about 225 men -- state parolees or parole violators -- live in the state-run halfway house, off Sportsman Road in South Heidelberg. The center is designed to help the residents re-enter society by providing treatment, education and job opportunities. Residents do not have restrictions on when they come and go, said campus director Marlena Seguin. Residents work as far away as Lancaster and Allentown.

Typically, a handful of them are men who have been declared sex predators, listed in the Megan’s law registry and required to report their addresses for the rest of their lives.

At the center, they’ve been equipped with the anklets since mid-November.

Using GPS devices makes the residents more accountable, gives a higher level of supervision, and increases public safety, Maria A. Finn, spokeswoman for the state Board of 

Probation and Parole, wrote in an e-mail.

At its discretion, the state may put tracking devices on any resident in the state system, Finn said.

In any case, the corrections department seems to be putting fewer sex offenders at the center.

That’s good news, South Heidelberg Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said, because concentrating sex offenders in one place increases the chance for trouble in the area.

It makes sense to use satellites to track sex offenders, who already are required to get extra attention from the state by staying on the registry, Whitmoyer said.

In general, Whitmoyer said he can’t attribute much crime to center residents.

Masked robber strikes Wells Fargo bank in Robesonia

by Steve Reinbrecht

Someone in a mask robbed the Wells Fargo bank in Robesonia on Tuesday, Jan. 10, police confirmed Friday.

The robber took an undisclosed amount of money about 4:50 p.m., just before closing.

The robber did not show or imply a gun, according to Western Berks Police Department.

Nobody was injured. Police would not give more details.

No one at the branch, at 1 W. Penn Ave., could comment, a woman who answered the phone said.

Wells Fargo spokesman Kevin Friedlander, in Summit, N.J., said he hadn’t heard about the robbery. He said the company does not comment while police are investigating.

South Heidelberg police charge man with burglary

by Steve Reinbrecht

Spotting a Pittsburgh Steelers blanket in a suspect’s house helped South Heidelberg police make a case against a Womelsdorf man they say stole a safe, a bottle of cognac and the blanket from a township man’s house on Christmas.

Also in December, township police charged another man for violating protection-from-abuse orders, saying he called and texted the victim.

That was the worst of the crime reported in December in Southwestern Berks.

According to court records:

The tale of the burglary started when Christian Racine, 20, and a woman companion visited the victim’s home in the 500 block of Hill Road about 12:30 p.m. Dec. 25.

The victim wouldn’t let the woman inside but talked with Racine. Through a window, he saw the woman walk to the backyard, where he and his parents found her under the deck. His father told the visitors to leave and not come back.

Later, as the victim was walking to Wernersville for cigarettes, a car with Racine, his mother and the woman passed him twice – heading toward his house and then back.

When he got home, he noticed an outside door to his bedroom was open and discovered the safe, which had gift cards and headphones, was gone from under his bed, and the cognac was gone from the mini-fridge in his room. He told police the woman knew he had a safe under his bed.

About 1 a.m. the next morning, Racine and the woman appeared at the victim’s outside bedroom door. When he told them to leave, the pair tossed patio equipment around.

Police went to Racine’s mother’s house the next day. Racine, the woman and his mother were there. The officer noticed the blanket, the mother consented to a search, and officers found the broken-open safe and cognac bottle. Racine told police the safe had also contained cannabis and methamphetamine, which he and the woman consumed.

Police also charged Racine with stealing two knives from another man’s unlocked pickup truck near the victim’s house.

In another case of alleged criminal behavior, South Heidelberg police charged David Koehler, 50, of Willow Road, Sinking Spring, with violating a protection-from-abuse order signed in November and in effect through 2019. He called the victim three times and texted six times, police said.

In general, the 20,000 residents or so in Wernersville, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring lived in relative peace and safety, measured by police reports and 9-1-1 calls. 

All together, police reported 43 crimes in the four municipalities in December, up from the 38 reported in November.

A commercial burglary reported Dec. 30 in the 100 block of West Penn Avenue in Robesonia was under investigation, Western Berks Police Chief William Schlichter said Monday.

As usual, most of the violence appeared to be domestic.

Lower Heidelberg police responded to a report of a domestic assault with injuries about 7:30 p.m. Dec. 25 in the 100 block of New York Avenue. Police were still investigating, Police Chief Tom Deiterich said Monday.

Domestic trouble was also reported in Lower Heidelberg on Saddlebrook Drive and Pine Street.

In Sinking Spring, it was reported on James Street, Shillington Road, Sioux Court, Huron Drive, Vester Place, and Woodrow and Evans avenues.

In South Heidelberg, domestic trouble was reported on Butternut and Elm View courts, Mountain Home and Texter Mountain roads, North Arthur Drive, and Caramist and Lambda circles.

In Wernersville, it was reported on Beckley Street and West Penn Avenue.

Burglar steals safe, cognac from South Heidelberg house

by Steve Reinbrecht

Someone stole a safe and liquor from a house in South Heidelberg on Dec. 26, but the burglary does not seem related to other recent daytime break-ins in Southwestern Berks this month.

The burglar took the safe, which contained gift cards, and the bottle of cognac about 12:30 p.m. that Monday from the house in the 500 block of Hill Road.

The door might have been unlocked, Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said. The theft is probably not connected to the four other day-time burglaries reported in Southwestern Berks in December, he said.

Four homes burglarized in Southwestern Berks

by Steve Reinbrecht

Four day-time home burglaries have been reported in Southwestern Berks so far in December.

In the latest intrusion, someone broke into a house in the 200 block of Huntzinger Road in South Heidelberg on Friday, Dec. 16.

A resident discovered the crime upon returning about 2 p.m. The only thing noticed missing was an inexpensive watch, Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

The other three burglaries were reported in Wernersville. No one was immediately available at the Western Berks Police station to give details.

On Dec., 1, a residential burglary was reported in the first block of Heidelberg Drive about 3:50 p.m.

The second was reported about 8:35 a.m. Dec. 6 at a residence in the 400 block of West Penn Avenue.

The third was reported 3:15 p.m. Dec. 15, in the first block of West Penn Avenue.

Domestic assaults among worst violence in Southwestern Berks in November

by Steve Reinbrecht

At least three men were charged with assaulting women in November in Southwestern Berks.

In one case, a man terrorized his girlfriend in a bedroom for hours, at one point choking her unconscious, South Heidelberg police said.

In that case, on Nov. 1, William M. Brown, of 132 Walters Ave., just south of Wernersville, was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses. He posted $25,000 bail.

And a young woman robbed a bank with a gun in Lower Heidelberg, probably the same woman who robbed a Spring Township bank three days earlier.

Those were among the worst crimes reported in Wernersville, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring last month. In general, the 20,000 residents or so in the area lived in relative peace and safety, measured by police reports and 9-1-1 calls. All together, police reported 38 crimes in the four municipalities in November, up from the 35 reported in October.

As usual, domestic violence prompted many 9-1-1 calls and criminal charges. I gleaned these details from court records at District Judge Ann Young's office and the state website.

In the second domestic-violence report, a Sinking Spring police officer wrote that he could hear the sounds of a man and woman fighting, and a woman yell, “Get off me!” as he approached a house at 318 Windmill St. after midnight on Nov. 4 in response to a 9-1-1 call.

The public deserves to know why Mark Short slaughtered his family

by Steve Reinbrecht

I asked Berks County detectives for a copy of the suicide note Mark Short wrote after he shot his family to death in Sinking Spring on Aug. 6.

Top: Mark Jason Short Sr.; Megan L. Short;
Lianna G. Short, 8; Willow R. Short, 2; Mark J. Short, 5.

That might sound ghoulish. But I had hoped it would shed some light on the thinking of the ultimate domestic abuser.

The county denied my request, I appealed, and the state denied my appeal.

Here is my reasoning:

The issue is whether the public’s right to know more about this incident outweighs the privacy of Mark Short’s survivors.

The public has a strong interest in knowing the content of the note. It would shine light on the twisted thinking behind actions that grievously wounded the community.

Short was a murderer who gave up expectations of privacy when he planned and carried out the massacre of his family. He harmed the community grievously, and community members deserve to know the cause of their pain and grief.

• He forced first-responders and other public servants to immerse themselves in a crime scene of unimaginable atrocity.
• Wilson School District provided counseling for residents. One of the victims would be in third grade in the Green Valley Elementary School.
• Local religious leaders cited the incident in their sermons.
• Media around the world covered the tragedy.

Releasing the suicide note would give insight into the horrors of domestic violence, a problem that is both pervasive and neglected. If children are murdered, it’s probably by a parent, as in this case.

Three assaults investigated in Southwestern Berks in October

by Steve Reinbrecht

The worst crimes reported in Southwestern Berks County in October were three assaults in Sinking Spring.

In one case, on Oct. 20, borough police reported a domestic assault about 7 p.m. in the 600 block of Vester Place.

When they arrived, Sinking Spring police had to wrestle a 7-month-old baby from a man who was holding her when they tried to arrest him, according to court documents.

According to the complaint, in District Judge Ann Young’s office:

The father, 25, was sitting outside their apartment holding the infant and crying when police responded.

The man told police that the couple had started fighting when he took car keys to prevent the mother, 28, from taking a car. The mother tackled, punched and bit the father while he was holding the baby, who at one point hit her head on a wall.

The father got irate when police told him that the child needed to go to a hospital to be examined. Police insisted he release the baby because he was under arrest, but he held her tighter.

One officer put the father in a choke hold, and he released the baby before passing out for a several seconds.

Police charged him with resisting arrest, and the mother with assault. Those charges were dismissed after they pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

The baby was kept overnight at a hospital.

The same day, an assault was reported about 8:40 a.m. at a house in the 200 block of Elwyn Avenue. Police Chief Lee Schweyer said it is under investigation.

The third assault was reported Oct. 29 in the 700 block of Ruth Street. Several people fought outside that Saturday night, but no charges were filed.

See the August 2016 crime report for Southwestern Berks.

See the September 2016 crime report for Southwestern Berks.

All together, police reported 35 crimes in Wernersville, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring in October, up from the 32 reported in September.

I found another database to plumb for local-crime information – Berks County’s “time response log.”

South Heidelberg police officers all have Tasers

by Steve Reinbrecht

All seven South Heidelberg police officers plus the chief now have Tasers – handheld weapons that shoot thin wires onto uncooperative suspects and knock them down with electrical shocks.

The eight weapons bring the force to modern standards, Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

Each Taser cost $900. The township spent $10,000, including batteries, holsters, and cartridges. The Fritztown Fire Company social quarters contributed $5,000, and the township expects to get a subsidy from the Berks district attorney’s office to offset the cost.

The weapons help protect the officers by giving them a method to subdue a non-cooperative person other than fighting him or shooting him, Whitmoyer said. Often simply the sight of the Taser calms an unruly person.

“Just seeing the red [targeting] light is a deterrent,” Whitmoyer said.

And the new Tasers come with “warning arcs” – flashing blue sparks zapping from the front of the weapon to show the suspect what he’s facing.

In general, opponents of the weapons cite that hundreds of people have died after being shot by a Taser, and that officers have been charged with using them when not necessary.

South Heidelberg bought X2 models, the latest available. They provide a backup shot, so officers don’t have to reload if the first shot misses or there are two suspects.

Police got the weapons in October, and haven’t used one yet, Whitmoyer said. The department will report and document every time they are fired, he said.

Whitmoyer said he was surprised when he took the job July 1 to discover his officers haven’t been equipped with the weapons. Officers in adjacent municipalities have them, he said.

Supervisors approved the purchase Sept. 8.

Man trapped, beat girlfriend in bedroom, South Heidelberg police say

by Steve Reinbrecht

A man terrorized his girlfriend for hours in a bedroom, at one point choking her unconscious, according to a South Heidelberg police complaint.

William M. Brown, of 132 Walters Ave., just south of Wernersville, was charged with aggravated assault and related offenses.

According to the complaint:

The woman called 9-1-1 from a neighbor’s home just before 2 a.m. on Nov. 1. She told police that Brown had trapped her in the bedroom and that she had escaped when she asked to go to the bathroom.

She had bruises and cuts on her face, neck and feet, and was taken to a hospital.

The victim told police that Brown, 38, described as 6-feet 7-inches and 275 pounds, had been drinking and got angry before dragging her up the stairs and keeping her in the bedroom. 

At different times, he choked her until she was unconscious, punched her in the face, told her he was going to murder her, and would not let her leave.

In October, Southwestern Berks – Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg, Wernersville and Sinking Spring – had 35 calls to 9-1-1 for domestic problems, according to county records.

Six people filed for protection-from abuse orders. A PFA is a court order that someone – often an abusive domestic partner – stay away from the person who files it.

In general, many of the assaults in the township are domestic, South Heidelberg Police Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

In a terrible case in the area that got worldwide attention, Mark Short murdered his wife, Megan, and three young children, Lianna, Mark and Willow, on Aug. 6 before killing himself in their home in Sinking Spring. Megan had been planning to move out.

South Heidelberg chief wants fewer ex-prisoners in state’s halfway house

by Steve Reinbrecht

UPDATE: The state Department of Corrections did respond to my request for comment. 

+++++++++++++++++++++++

The South Heidelberg police chief has safety concerns about hundreds of men, right out of prison, housed in the middle of nowhere [the eastern part of South Heidelberg] traveling back and forth to Reading on BARTA buses looking for work, hanging out with friends or perhaps buying heroin.

“A lot of residents have voiced their concerns over this,” Chief Barry Whitmoyer said.

He's worried about dangerous drugs at the Wernersville Community Corrections Center, off Sportsman Road.

Residents have left the center recently and done bad things. They come and go all day long.

The WCCC had 278 residents Oct. 26, according to a state corrections department report. Two were murderers, six were sex offenders, 22 had been imprisoned for assault, and 69 for arson, robbery or burglary.

Some have been in trouble lately. Last Monday, Nov. 14, a WCCC resident returned from a work-related day pass with suspected drugs and paraphernalia, state police said.

In October, another man who had a bed in the WCCC, Harold J. McGurl Jr., 42, of Ashland, was charged with trying to slash a man to death back in his hometown after leaving the WCCC.

In August, another WCCC resident, Sean Patrick Gilgallon, from Lackawanna, was charged with robbing a bank in South Heidelberg and leading police on a chase and search.

Chief Barry Whitmoyer

Whitmoyer, who started as chief July 1, is concerned that the inmates bring drugs into the community, demonstrated by frequent overdoses.

Southwestern Berks County practically free of [reported] violent crime

by Steve Reinbrecht

Despite political rhetoric designed to terrorize us and polls that show many Americans live in fear, it’s been very safe recently in Southwestern Berks County, according to police reports.

Western Berks Regional Police responded to a fight Sunday, Sept. 18, just after 9 p.m. in the 100 block of West Penn Avenue, in Robesonia.

Two friends got into an argument and then a scuffle in a borough backyard, Western Berks Regional Police Chief William Schlichter said.

Once police arrived, things were settled, and no one was charged, he said.

The area had one burglary report in September, also in Wernersville, on Monday, Sept. 12, in the first block of East Penn Avenue.

Burglary rates are good measures of quality of life and security, so it’s heartening to see so few reported in the area. The idea of a desperate intruder entering my house and tearing it apart looking for my [non-existent] treasure is terrifying. I know burglary victims feel violated and may grieve over the loss of their domestic inviolability. Hard to tell, but maybe we can credit effective police and neighbors who know each other for the lack of burglaries.

Anyway, this lone burglary in September was mundane – nothing of value stolen from an abandoned building, with no leads, Schlichter said.

Sinking Spring police reported an “opium-cocaine” possession on James Street on Sept 2.

Sinking Spring Police Chief Police Chief Lee Schweyer said he couldn’t reveal precisely what drug was possessed because it is under investigation.

See the August crime report for Southwestern Berks

Police in Wernersville, Lower Heidelberg, South Heidelberg and Sinking Spring reported 32 crimes together in September, down from 46 in August.

Most were very minor, though they might not have seemed that way for the victims. There were four reports of disorderly conduct, four of fraud, five DUIs, six thefts and four acts of vandalism, all spread out across the area.

Many frauds that local police report are cases of stolen identity or credit card fraud, said Detective Chris Stouch. If someone in Estonia steals your credit card information and sells it to someone in Los Angeles who uses it at a Wal-Mart there, your local police get the investigation.

So far in October, police reports comprise similar crimes.

Nothing in September compared to the murders and suicide that month in Sinking Spring that horrified the world.

Despite clown threats, Wilson plans classes as usual Wednesday

by Steve Reinbrecht

UPDATE [10 p.m. Oct. 5] No clown hostility was reported at Wilson School District schools.

Wilson School District will hold classes as usual Wednesday -- although extra police will be on patrol -- after somebody made repeated “clown” threats against district schools, Superintendent Curt Baker said Tuesday night. He contacted residents by e-mail just after 10 a.m. and in a phone message just after 8 p.m.

Police “do not believe the threats contained in the messages to be credible,” Baker said in his message. “In an abundance of caution, police will increase patrols of our schools.”

A message posted Tuesday morning on Instagram, an online social medium, said:

“We will be coming to the following schools tommorow [sic] at 12:30: Reading HS, Governor Mifflin, Wilson Hs, Twin Valley. REMEMBER WE DID WARN YOU. There will be 3 of us at each school Love, gigglez.”

Berks County detectives were investigating “clown related threats” toward those four districts, according to a post on the Berks County district attorney office’s Facebook page.

Spring Township police said “several individuals” received the"threats" on Instagram.

High School Principal Chris Trickett sent a message to students about the hostile messages and thanked those who “quickly notified our teachers and principals. The prompt relay of information from social media is necessary and greatly appreciated."

Students were discussing the messages and that teachers were reassuring them, district spokeswoman Kristin Kramer said Tuesday afternoon. 

Early messages mentioned the high school, and later messages also mentioned the “MS.” The district has two middle schools.

Baker said he would not hesitate to send his own children to school.

Detectives ask that anyone with information call 610-478-7171.

Here is a recent bulletin about clown threats from the state police:

A number of clown related social media posts were displayed this past weekend regarding threats towards school districts in Pennsylvania and throughout the country. Some threats stated that a clown would arrive at the school and “shoot all students and teachers,” while another threat stated they “weren’t clowning around.” Most of the social media posts were attributed to a “clown joke,” possibly linked to numerous clown sightings throughout the nation and the world.

These sightings have not been validated and there are no known threats to schools in Pennsylvania. Residents are encouraged to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to their closest police department.

Over the last few months, “creepy clowns” have been reported throughout the United States and the world. The media has reported incidents where clowns have stood on the street not moving or speaking, to incidents where creepy clowns attempted to lure children into wooded areas. These sightings have occurred in Wisconsin, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Colorado, Oregon, and Texas.

Many of these reported clown sightings have little to no evidence establishing their legitimacy, but it is fueling a clown panic throughout the country.

Due to the media coverage of clown sightings, many people want to become involved in the phenomenon. Over the past two weeks at least 12 people were arrested in Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia for making false reports of clown threats or chasing people while costumed.

This is not the first time a clown scare has occurred in this country. In the 1980s, clown sightings were reported in Boston, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and Arlington Heights, among many other areas. Upon further investigation, police noticed that most, if not all the clown sightings, were witnessed only by children between the ages of five and seven.

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) is providing this bulletin for informational purposes only. The PSP encourages reporting of suspicious activity by calling the toll‐free Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Terrorism Tip Line at (888) 292‐1919, or via email at tips@pa.gov.