Spreading a “spooky clown” hoax over social media has gotten a Livonia man in trouble, charged with falsely reporting an incident.
Livingston County Sheriff Tom Dougherty says Christopher Hooper posted a Photo-Shopped clown image on Facebook, saying he snapped the photo in Vitale Park in Lakeville. He posted that the clown ran away when he snapped the picture and added that people shouldn’t let their kids go into the park at night or alone.
The post was shared about 200 times before it was deleted and caused public alarm. Hooper admitted making the story up.
Sheriff Dougherty says they charged him with false reporting because he caused public alarm and inconvenience, and forced his office to waste its resources running down a false alarm.