First came the man in a clown costume.
先是穿著小丑服裝的男子出現(xiàn)了。

Then came the calls to the police.
然后人們報警了。

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.
據(jù)警方和當?shù)匦侣劽襟w報道，周四人們在田納西州克拉克斯維爾市看到了一名把面部涂白并戴著紅鼻子的男子駕車?？吭诠财囌九?，并示意孩子們走近他，之后這名可疑的小丑給孩子們分發(fā)了糖果，而暫時引起了恐慌。當局表示，兩名學生舉報了這一事件，而且一位坐在車里的目擊者看到了這名小丑，并報了警。

圖片來源：視覺中國

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.
這一事件引發(fā)了人們對“來自陌生人的危險”的擔憂，使人們回想起2016年的小丑大恐慌。當時有關小丑埋伏在森林附近和街燈下的故事引起全國恐慌，雖然許多報道后來發(fā)現(xiàn)都是假的。報道的小丑目擊事件利用了人們對小丑在文化上的恐懼，最終導致許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.
田納西州短暫的恐慌碰巧與電影《小丑回魂2》預告片的發(fā)布同時發(fā)生，這是一部關于小丑的恐怖電影的續(xù)集，這部影片將于今年上映。

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.
但經(jīng)過迅速的調查之后，克拉克斯維爾市當局確定，最近的恐怖經(jīng)歷只是虛驚一場：那名小丑不是壞人，他只是被誤解了。

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（翻譯：Dlacus）