--- ---  # Police Would Like You to Please Stop Tying Creepy Red Balloons to Sewers by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:00 AM UTCPublished: Sep 6, 2017 3:58 PM UTC  People wearing yellow rain jackets and carry red ballon line the arrivals carpet at the world premiere of "It" on September 5, 2017 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) People wearing yellow rain jackets and carry red ballon line the arrivals carpet at the world premiere of "It" on September 5, 2017 at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. / AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:00 AM UTCPublished: Sep 6, 2017 3:58 PM UTC If pranksters have their way this will be the creepiest town in America. Someone in Lititz, Pennsylvania has been tying red balloons to sewer grates around the city and it’s scaring the tuna salad out of residents. Now, the Lititz Borough Police Department would really like whoever is pulling the stunt to knock it off, not only because it’s creeping out the residents, but because it’s taking up police resources whenever a freaked out person calls the cops cause [a clown](http://time.com/4518456/scary-clown-sighting-attack-craze/?iid=sr-link9) might be lurking in the sewer grate. “I don’t think we have an accurate balloon count, but it’s definitely above 20,” Sgt. Stephen Detz with the Lititz Borough Police Department [told CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pennsylvania-police-red-balloons-tied-to-sewer-grates/). “They pretty much hit the entire town and the area around the town.” While some community members may have missed the inspiration behind the prank, the police are canny and know that the balloons were [inspired by ](http://time.com/4921938/world-clowns-sad-it/?iid=sr-link1)[_It_](http://time.com/4921938/world-clowns-sad-it/?iid=sr-link1)_,_ the [Stephen King](http://time.com/4915867/stephen-king-trump-block/?iid=sr-link2) book-turned-movie about a [killer clown ](http://time.com/4521464/insane-clown-posse-killer-clowns/?iid=sr-link4)who lures children into sewers with red balloons. They took to Facebook to warn the public about the menace. “Search _It_ and watch the preview, but we suggest watching it with a friend or coworker with all the lights on and the sound down low,” the department [wrote](https://www.facebook.com/LititzBoroughPoliceDepartment/). While they wait for the movie to hit theaters, the police department has been dispatching officers to deal with the balloons and “want the local prankster to know that we were completely terrified as we removed \[the\] balloons.” The police department may sound tough now, but that attitude could disappear if it turns out the prankster is in fact [Pennywise](http://time.com/4550480/pennsylvania-joggers-clown-mask-school-police-chief/?iid=sr-link6). Even a Kansas police station’s Twitter account weighed in. > [](https://twitter.com/LawrenceKS%5FPD/status/905430343251099649) Police Respond to Creepy It Red Balloon Clown Prank ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4929026/it-prank-red-balloon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4929026/it-prank-red-balloon/"},"headline":"Police Would Like You to Please Stop Tying Creepy Red Balloons to Sewers","datePublished":"2017-09-06T15:58:36.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T04:00:13.000Z","description":"Pennsylvania police were \"completely terrified\" while removing the balloons from the sewer grates","url":"https://time.com/4929026/it-prank-red-balloon/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","movies","Bizarre","IT","clowns"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b02e0a5344ac857/6988dca50a4a22ae909cfc6d/gettyimages-843125940.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5b02e0a5344ac857/6988dca50a4a22ae909cfc6d/gettyimages-843125940.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-PREMIERE-IT","caption":"US-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-PREMIERE-IT","creditText":"ROBYN BECK—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4929026/it-prank-red-balloon/","name":"Police Would Like You to Please Stop Tying Creepy Red Balloons to Sewers"}}]}] ```