(KAIR)--Creepy clown reports reach the local region.

According to an alert released by Saint Joseph Police, the department has recently received reports regarding suspicious people dressed as clowns. However, the alert says nothing to verify the reports has been discovered by responding officers.

The release also states there is no Missouri law that prohibits the wearing of costumes, including clowns.

Just last week, KQ2 News reported a threat made to local schools through the use of a Facebook account called “Ain't Clownin Around.”

The threat, which indicated that clowns would kidnap or kill teachers last Friday, included a picture of Saint Joseph's Lafayette High School. No arrests have been made pertaining to the threat. However, The New York Times reports warrants were issued in LaGrange, Georgia for four people blamed for a similar threat earlier this month.

Clown sightings have become prevalent in recent months across the nation, with USA Today reporting that such occurrences have been reported in 13 states. No clowns have been arrested, but The New York Times report indicates that other arrests have been made in spots around the nation pertaining to false reports made regarding the sighting of clowns.

This isn't the first time creepy clowns have concerned the nation, with similar occurrences happening from time to time. In the majority of those past incidents, no threatening activity was discovered despite investigations.

In the book Mysterious America, author Loren Coleman, a cryptozoologist, documents the past sightings.

That includes cases in 1981 that were reported in Boston, Massachusetts that then spread across the nation.

One investigation involved Kansas City where a clown, driving a bright yellow van, reportedly threatened two young girls with a knife. That May 15, 1981 incident spread across the Kansas City area, with law enforcement receiving numerous related reports through the day, until they abruptly ended that evening at 5:00.

Sociologists quoted in national news reports blame the bulk of the sightings, mostly first reported by children, as mass hysteria that has grown substantially through the use of social media.