CLOSE Wisconsin residents are calling police, asking about a disheveled clown walking through Green Bay with four black balloons. Sara Snyder, USA TODAY 
 
 People have spotted this clown walking around Green Bay. (Photo: Gags - The Green Bay Clown, Facebook) 
 
 Wisconsin residents are calling police, asking about a disheveled clown walking through Green Bay with four black balloons. 
 
 But, there's not much police can do. The clown doesn't appear armed or dangerous — just really creepy. 
 
 "This person is not breaking the law," said Captain Kevin Warych of the Green Bay Police Department. "He can walk in a clown costume anywhere he wants." 
 
 The clown, who is being referred to as Gags – The Green Bay Clown, was first spotted at 2 a.m. Aug. 1, according to a fan Facebook page that popped up the next day. 
 
 Commenter Shannon Mueller said if she met Gags, she would "curl into the fetal position and die of heart exploding from pure terror." 
 
 Photos of Gags show a figure with full face makeup – high eyebrows, hollow eyes and a black smile. The clown wears a soiled-looking jumpsuit with a ruffled collar. 
 
 Some believe Gags is part of a horror film, but others say they haven’t seen a camera crew. 
 
 Warych said he's surprised that Gags has gone viral. 
 
 "At the end of the day, it’s just a person walking around in clown costume." 
 
 Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2aT1cmT ||||| The interactive map above tracks over 100 clown sightings and threats across America, beginning in early August. 
 
 The first American “creepy clown” sighting, by most accounts, ended up being for a movie. Gags, the Green Bay clown, was seen wandering around Wisconsin in early August, carrying a host of black balloons. People were a bit freaked out until a local man said that he was using Gags for a short film he was working on. 
 
 The intent, in other words, was benign. 
 
 But then, on August 20, an anonymous caller in Greenville, South Carolina, said that they’d seen clowns in the woods, and the next day someone else said they’d seen clowns in the woods flashing green lasers. Just as everything started to calm down, on August 29, it happened again: two children reported seeing clowns in Greenville. 
 
 And with that, clown hysteria began. Next came clown sightings in nearby North Carolina. And, then, sightings—and, increasingly, social media threats—up and down the Eastern Seaboard. By mid-September, the sightings and threats had moved west, to Middle America. And by late September and early October, they’d reached the West Coast. 
 
 Few of the threats have amounted to much more than a scare, and even fewer have produced actual clowns. But in at least a handful of cases, living, breathing clowns have turned up. 
 
 Take a case in Middlesboro, Kentucky, on September 23, when a 20-year-old man in a clown outfit and mask was arrested after he was spotted crouched in a wooded area by an apartment complex. Or, a week earlier, a 25-year-old in a Walmart parking lot who was arrested after numerous people called police to complain about him. 
 
 That clown told police it was merely just for fun, with Halloween coming up and all. 
 
 “It’s not illegal to scare people,” the man, dressed in face paint and a checkered suit, told a cop in a patrol car. 
 
 But those guys are the exception, not the rule. If you think you’ve seen a clown, maybe stop for a second before calling police, and think about whether you’re actually looking at a clown. If you verify that what you’re seeing is a clown, then it might be a good idea to call 911. 
 
 Or just run.
– Coulrophobes might want to steer clear of Wisconsin for a while. Some creeped-out people in Green Bay have been calling police about a clown wandering around with a bouquet of black balloons, reports USA Today. The clown was spotted at 2am Monday, though it's unclear whether he's surfaced since. Police tell NBC 26 there's nothing they can do since the clown doesn't appear to be doing anything illegal. Of course, a Facebook fan page has since sprung up, and Chicagoist rounds up some theories: viral marketing stunt, actor in a horror movie, or some kind of self-promotion, given that "the page launched a half hour after the first photo was supposedly taken."