Photo via Flickr user Randen Pederson
Up until now, the Creepy Clown Craze of 2016 has drawn the line at just being creepy. The clowns may lurk in the woods, menacing children with knives and chains, but menacing was all they did. That's all changed.Police in Sweden say that a man in a clown mask has officially drawn first blood by stabbing a teen in the shoulder and fleeing on foot, the Guardian reports. The Swedish clown stabbing comes in the wake of some other evil clown sightings in the area. A woman told Swedish police that two clowns threatened to kill her earlier this week."She was extremely frightened," a spokesperson for the cops told a local newspaper.The evil clown hysteria started simply enough, with a few kids in South Carolina reporting creepy Pennywise-types lurking in the woods near their apartment complex. When that news report went viral, the inarguably stupid idea to dress up like a scary clown and spook kids went viral, too. Now evil clown sightings are a global phenomenon.Scaring people while wearing red noses and flowers that squirt water is one thing, but actually stabbing a teenage boy in the shoulder is a step too far, clowns. This is a plea for common decency. Please let this joke die.Read: Ronald McDonald Is Going Away Until People Like Clowns Again