14-year-old stabs 'creepy clown' in prank gone wrong
The Local Germany - [email protected]
Published: 25 Oct, 2016 CET.
Updated: Tue 25 Oct 2016 10:52 CET
A 16-year-old in Berlin decided he wanted to scare some friends, but his plot backfired in a violent way.
The teenager donned a clown mask and grabbed a hammer on Monday night, hoping to give a fright to some of his unsuspecting friends, police stated in a report titled "Not at all funny".
At around 7.30pm, he crept up on a group of other teenagers, but one of them, aged 14, didn’t find the prank so amusing, pulled out a knife and stabbed his perceived attacker in the torso.
Once his mask was removed, the 14-year-old recognized the disguised clown and treated his wound until an ambulance arrived.
Police initially detained the 14-year-old and then brought him to his parents. The 16-year-old had to undergo an operation at a hospital, but his injury is not life threatening, according to Tagesspiegel.
The so-called ‘killer clown craze’ has been grabbing headlines in Germany in recent weeks since spreading from the United States, especially due to violent incidents. A 19-year-old in Rostock was attacked and left bruised by a clown, and two of three thieves who robbed a Potsdam pizza shop were disguised as clowns.
On Friday, a 10-year-old in Munich was chased and shouted at by a person in a clown mask, swinging an axe, according to police. The child managed to flee on his bicycle and report the incident to his mother, who called police.
The frequency of the crimes and the fact that some clowns have been reported as armed have raised the alarm among elected officials.
Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told the Passauer Neue Presse on Monday that there would be no tolerance for clown pranks.
"These kind of nasty gags can have horrible consequences," Herrmann said.
"We will therefore not let people get away with this, and each case that follows will be punished accordingly."
North Rhine-Westphalia justice minister Thomas Kutschaty also spoke of harsh consequences for clown impersonators.
"Whoever wants to, as they say, scare others to death, is not being funny but an offender," Kutschaty told Bild.
"And therefore unmasked clowns could land in jail for up to a year."
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The teenager donned a clown mask and grabbed a hammer on Monday night, hoping to give a fright to some of his unsuspecting friends, police stated in a report titled "Not at all funny".
At around 7.30pm, he crept up on a group of other teenagers, but one of them, aged 14, didn’t find the prank so amusing, pulled out a knife and stabbed his perceived attacker in the torso.
Once his mask was removed, the 14-year-old recognized the disguised clown and treated his wound until an ambulance arrived.
Police initially detained the 14-year-old and then brought him to his parents. The 16-year-old had to undergo an operation at a hospital, but his injury is not life threatening, according to Tagesspiegel.
The so-called ‘killer clown craze’ has been grabbing headlines in Germany in recent weeks since spreading from the United States, especially due to violent incidents. A 19-year-old in Rostock was attacked and left bruised by a clown, and two of three thieves who robbed a Potsdam pizza shop were disguised as clowns.
On Friday, a 10-year-old in Munich was chased and shouted at by a person in a clown mask, swinging an axe, according to police. The child managed to flee on his bicycle and report the incident to his mother, who called police.
The frequency of the crimes and the fact that some clowns have been reported as armed have raised the alarm among elected officials.
Bavarian interior minister Joachim Herrmann told the Passauer Neue Presse on Monday that there would be no tolerance for clown pranks.
"These kind of nasty gags can have horrible consequences," Herrmann said.
"We will therefore not let people get away with this, and each case that follows will be punished accordingly."
North Rhine-Westphalia justice minister Thomas Kutschaty also spoke of harsh consequences for clown impersonators.
"Whoever wants to, as they say, scare others to death, is not being funny but an offender," Kutschaty told Bild.
"And therefore unmasked clowns could land in jail for up to a year."
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