WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A 17-year-old boy jogging along Pontiac Trail near Haggerty is the latest person to report a clown encounter.

"He sensed that someone was coming out of the woods nearby, and when he looked, it was a person in a clown-type outfit," Police Chief Mike Patton said.

The person was wearing a mask and a red wig or ear muffs and was wielding a large butcher's knife.

The teen got away and called police. A white SUV was seen in the immediate area after the clown was sighted and then disappeared.

This is the fourth clown encounter in the township in about two weeks.

Patton, like the rest of the chiefs in Metro Detroit who have been dealing with clown calls, doesn't find it amusing.

"There is the potential for a terrible tragedy here," Patton said. "Where someone who could be perceived to be threatened will react to what they think is a threat and we'll have a real tragedy on our hands."

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