The reports to the police had one thing in common with the circus act involving an improbable number of clowns emerging from a small car.

They just kept coming, and coming, and coming, across multiple states. Clowns in vans. Clowns in the woods. Clowns lurking in the shadows. Clowns chasing people or doing crimes.

But in recent weeks, steady police work has turned the news around, with 12 people facing charges of making false reports or threats, or chasing people, the authorities said. Other cases seem attributable to children with overactive imaginations, teenagers pulling pranks and others with their own reasons for adding to the hysteria. At least one death has been linked to a clown hoax.

On Friday, schools in Reading, Ohio, were closed out of concern for the safety of students after a woman said she was attacked by a man dressed as a clown, the school district announced. A youth was arrested the day before in connection with a clown threat to harm students at a school in Colerain Township, the police said on Facebook.