Scary clowns tormenting workers at drive-thrus, harassing people at gas pumps and even some copycats carjacked someone in Collier county last week made headlines. The criminal clown is popping up everywhere, but it's giving good honest clowns a bad name.
"What bothers me is that everybody just refers to them as clowns and they aren't clowns they are just jerks in clown masks," said Don Shepherd, who has been a professional clown for years.
He wanted to make one thing clear.
"There's a little more to being a clown than putting on a mask," said Shepherd.
Clown costumes are flying off shelves faster than clowns can make balloon animals.
Crissy Barchers runs the Red Headed Witches costume shop in Cape Coral.
She says all the clowns are hogging the spotlight.
"So from mask sales to full costume sales, and makeup. It is definitely an increase in sales since then," said Barchers.
She struggles to keep the Joker and Harley Quinn costumes in the store.
"But I'm always curious what are they going to do with the clown stuff. A lot of times we get people off season that just want to come in and scare people, their friends, their wife," she said.
But Don says real clowns don't scare people.
"Caloosa Clown Alley goes to the hospitals and do wonderful work at the hospitals," said Don.
