--- title: Woman Burns Clown Doll Found in Yard, Sleeps With Knife description: A New Jersey woman took matters into her own hands when a spooky clown doll appeared in her backyard, using both arson and a knife. canonical: https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-21T16:40:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:04.100Z og:title: Woman Burns Clown Doll Found in Yard, Sleeps With Knife og:description: It all began when a Pennywise doll appeared in her yard og:url: https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf1082ee204a607/698a01b416d8844a6ac36d7e/nj-woman-burns-clown-doll-sleeps-with-knife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: A porcelain clown og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman Burns Clown Doll Found in Yard, Sleeps With Knife twitter:description: It all began when a Pennywise doll appeared in her yard twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf1082ee204a607/698a01b416d8844a6ac36d7e/nj-woman-burns-clown-doll-sleeps-with-knife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Woman's Response After a Spooky Clown Doll Appeared in Her Home Deserves Its Own Horror Film > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=200f9f2c-dece-4f05-a044-b25e3ee59f21&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: IT CHAPTER TWO - Final Trailer HD [Watch (HLS stream): IT CHAPTER TWO - Final Trailer HD](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wTMfIVrj.m3u8) (2:28)  _Published 2019-07-19. IT CHAPTER TWO - Final Trailer HD_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 21, 2019 4:40 PM UTC  A porcelain clown dressed in black and white clothes with black and red makeup. A porcelain clown dressed in black and white clothes with black and red makeup. Marianne Purdie—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Aug 21, 2019 4:40 PM UTC What would you do if a [spooky clown](https://time.com/4740804/pennywise-meme-2017/) doll mysteriously appeared in your backyard? For Renee Jensen of New Jersey, the only logical approach was to burn the doll, sage her property and sleep with a knife. According to [_North Jersey Record_](https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/2019/08/18/new-jersey-clown-doll-pennywise/2047296001/), Jensen said she was relaxing in her backyard with her boyfriend when the doll, a seeming toy replica of Pennywise, the murderous clown from [Stephen King’s _It_](https://time.com/5095874/it-bill-skarsgard-pennywise-the-clown-nightmares/), was thrown onto their property. The doll had blood on its face and mysterious markings on its forehead, which scared Jensen so much that she reported the doll to the police, whom she claims refused to touch it. “I was freaking out. It was creepy and it had weird … I don’t even know what the writing was. It looked culty,” she said. Jensen, who owns a reiki and intuitive healing business in Ridgewood, opted to take matters into her own hands when it came to the clown. “They left, and then I burned the thing,” she said. “I tried to burn it with a lighter. The stupid thing would not light, because it has the flame retardant. Then I put olive oil on it. Still wouldn’t light. Then I put newspaper on it and light it up on fire.” After the doll was reduced to ashes, Jensen burned sage and walked around her home to cleanse it. And just in case that wasn’t enough, she also slept with a knife that night. “I didn’t want this thing on my property,” she said. “I know people think it’s crazy but…it’s creepy.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/"},"headline":"Woman's Response After a Spooky Clown Doll Appeared in Her Home Deserves Its Own Horror Film","datePublished":"2019-08-21T16:40:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:04.100Z","description":"It all began when a Pennywise doll appeared in her yard","url":"https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf1082ee204a607/698a01b416d8844a6ac36d7e/nj-woman-burns-clown-doll-sleeps-with-knife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bf1082ee204a607/698a01b416d8844a6ac36d7e/nj-woman-burns-clown-doll-sleeps-with-knife.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A porcelain clown","caption":"A porcelain clown","creditText":"Marianne Purdie—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/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/","name":"Woman's Response After a Spooky Clown Doll Appeared in Her Home Deserves Its Own Horror Film"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"IT CHAPTER TWO - Final Trailer [HD]","description":"IT CHAPTER TWO - Final Trailer [HD]","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wTMfIVrj/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-07-19T00:31:22.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wTMfIVrj.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/","duration":"PT2M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5657543/woman-finds-clown-dolls-burns-knife/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```