Times Insider shares insights into how we work at The New York Times. In this piece, Christopher Mele, a reporter on the Times’s Express Team, reveals what it’s like to investigate hard-news crimes allegedly committed by those in the ... ahem ... laughter profession.

Another round of clown sightings? This time in Winston-Salem, N.C.?

Oh yes, you bet I raised my hand to write about that.

An email about the latest sightings was circulating among members of the Express Team, where we cover breaking news and write articles we believe will be of wide interest on social and digital platforms.

One of my colleagues, Katie Rogers, wrote about sightings of people dressed as clowns in Greenville County, S.C., on Aug. 30. Several children said the clowns offered them money to come into the woods. A woman walking home late one night told the police she had seen a clown waving at her from under a streetlight.