Giant nightmare clown puppet appears at police station – and no one knows why

Police are trying to track down the owner of a giant, nightmare-inducing puppet after it was mysteriously handed into a station.

The eerie marionette – complete with wild red hair, hollow eye sockets and a clown costume – was photographed sitting inside the Stoneham Police Department, Massachusetts, after officers appealed for help identifying its owner.

In a tongue-in-cheek social media post, the department wrote: ‘We are attempting to locate the owner of this puppet that was turned into the station.

‘If this belongs to you – or if you recognize it from your nightmares – please contact us to arrange pickup.’

The creepy figure quickly sparked reactions online, with social media users comparing it to something straight out of a horror movie.

Commenters claimed the puppet appears to be ‘Bobby Strings,’ a 7-foot, 7-inch animatronic sold by Spirit Halloween for $9.99.

The puppet is not the only thing playing Halloween havoc with police in the US.

In October 2024, officers in Cleveland, Ohio, tried to snare a runaway giant inflatable pumpkin – and it was all caught on dashcam.

A house in Dallas took Halloween decorations to the extreme – and ended up with a call from the cops.

His display, which featured fake bodies and buckets of blood, was so convincing his neighbors called police.

And in Thailand, a cat ended up with a mugshot and having their pawprints taken after attacking officers.

Nub Tang, which means ‘counting money’, was brought into the police station after she was found wandering the streets in a pink harness.

But she ended up biting and scratching cops who took her in.