For the past several days, social media has been abuzz with rumors and pics about some creepy clown who is popping up around Staten Island, New York.

The clown has been seen standing along roadsides and sidewalks at night, handing out balloons, waving at cars. But this isn’t some cheery-looking Bozo of a fellow. This is a John Wayne Gacy, flashbacks to Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT kind of clown.

There are all flavors of clown suits, from your circus clown to the Ronald McDonald variety. This one has a clown-white face-paint job, bald head, red nose, yellow clown suit, white puffy collar, and is seen with green and yellow balloons, which he appears to give out.

SILive reports that there are several theories about who this clown — or even clowns — might be.

Then The Blaze ran an article titled “We Think We Know Why There Is a Creepy Clown Walking Around Staten Island”. Their theory was that the appearances are part of a publicity stunt by Fuzz On the Lens, an area company making a horror movie. Perhaps the producers were going for some sort of viral takeoff for their project.

Their evidence for this assumption is that three of the men who had posted on social media about the clown were all associated with the same film company. However, the producers have since denied that the stunt has anything to do with them, though they say they are happy to take credit for something that is causing such a buzz.

Meanwhile, since the “investigation” stated, the clown has made more appearances. The most recent appears to have been at a train station, where he is seen reclining nonchalantly on a bench.

The mystery rolls on, but this one will be fun to watch.

Image via Instagram