An Eastern Pennsylvania police department is turning a prankster’s spooky practical joke into a clever public announcement.
The Lititz Police Department published a post on its Facebook page Tuesday morning highlighting the prank: a red balloon tied to a sewer grate at an intersection.
TRENDING NOW:
- Hurricane Irma: Here's a list of items for a last-minute preparation kit
- Bees swarm, kill 2 men mowing their lawns
- New Castle man accused of puppy abuse
- VIDEO: Trump administration ends DACA program
As horror fans know, that’s a nod to Stephen King monster Pennywise, an evil being personified as a clown who lures children into the sewer in the bestseller “It.” The movie version hits theaters this weekend.
“A certain movie is coming to theaters in two days, and a local prankster took it upon themselves to promote the movie,” the post said. “We give points for creativity, however we want the local prankster to know that we were completely terrified as we removed these balloons from the grates and we respectfully request they do not do that again.”
The post included two photos of the balloon.
The tongue-in-cheek post soon went viral, and Tuesday afternoon a second post went up, showing an officer dusting the balloon for fingerprints – while wearing a clown wig.
“We have turned the investigation over to our Criminal Investigations Division for further investigation and prosecution of the person(s), errr ah, ‘thing’ responsible,” the post said. “Don't worry everyone, we'll have the person or ‘thing’ responsible in custody in no time, these guys really know what they're doing!”