First came the man in a clown costume.
先是穿着小丑服装的男子出现了。

Then came the calls to the police.
然后人们报警了。

Reports about a rogue clown handing out candy to children briefly caused alarm in Clarksville, Tenn., on Thursday, after a man with a white painted face and a red nose was seen driving by a bus stop and motioning for the children to come near, according to the police and local news reports. Two students reported the incident, and a witness who spotted the clown in his car called the police, the authorities said.
据警方和当地新闻媒体报道，周四人们在田纳西州克拉克斯维尔市看到了一名把面部涂白并戴着红鼻子的男子驾车停靠在公共汽车站旁，并示意孩子们走近他，之后这名可疑的小丑给孩子们分发了糖果，而暂时引起了恐慌。当局表示，两名学生举报了这一事件，而且一位坐在车里的目击者看到了这名小丑，并报了警。

图片来源：视觉中国

The episode screamed of “stranger danger” and brought to mind the Great Clown Panic of 2016, when tales of clowns lurking near the woods and under streetlights ignited a national hysteria , although many of the reports were found to be false. The reported sightings played on a cultural fear of clowns and eventually led to at least a dozen arrests in multiple states.
这一事件引发了人们对“来自陌生人的危险”的担忧，使人们回想起2016年的小丑大恐慌。当时有关小丑埋伏在森林附近和街灯下的故事引起全国恐慌，虽然许多报道后来发现都是假的。报道的小丑目击事件利用了人们对小丑在文化上的恐惧，最终导致许多州逮捕了多名小丑。

The brief panic in Tennessee also happened to coincide with the release of the trailer for “It Chapter Two,” a follow-up to the clown horror movie, set to hit theaters this year.
田纳西州短暂的恐慌碰巧与电影《小丑回魂2》预告片的发布同时发生，这是一部关于小丑的恐怖电影的续集，这部影片将于今年上映。

But after a swift investigation, the Clarksville authorities determined that the latest fright was a false alarm: He was not a bad clown. He was simply misunderstood.
但经过迅速的调查之后，克拉克斯维尔市当局确定，最近的恐怖经历只是虚惊一场：那名小丑不是坏人，他只是被误解了。

 

（翻译：Dlacus）