A few years ago, there was a wealthy couple who had two young children, a boy and a girl. The family lived in a large house in Newport Beach, California.
After taking care of their kids all week, the mother and father decided that they needed a break, so they booked a table for dinner at a nice restaurant.
That evening, they called a teenage girl they knew and arranged for her to come over and babysit their children while they were out. When the babysitter arrived, the parents told her to fix supper for the kids and put them to bed.
"After that you can just watch TV and help yourself to anything in the fridge", said the father.
"And if you wouldn't mind," said the mother, "could you watch TV in our bedroom? The kids have been having nightmares recently, so if you hear them crying, you can just go in and calm them down."
The babysitter happily agreed and the parents left for their dinner date. The girl gave the children some milk and cookies, then ushered them upstairs to bed. She started to read them a bedtime story and, before long, the little boy and girl were fast asleep. After tucking them in, she switched off the lights and went to watch TV.
When the babysitter walked into the parents' bedroom and sat down, she noticed that there was a creepy-looking clown statue standing in the corner of the room. She tried to ignore it, but it looked so eerie and disturbing that it sent a chill down her spine. She felt as though its eyes were staring straigt at her while she watched TV.
As time passed, the babysitter started to feel more and more uneasy about the clown statue. Whenever she glanced at it, she got the unsettling feeling that it had moved, ever so slightly. Finally, the clown statue began to freak her out so much that she couldn't handle it any longer.
She decided to go downstairs and phone the parents. When she dialed the number they had left for her, the mother answered.
"Hi, it's me," said the babysitter. "Everything's fine. The kids are fast asleep in bed, but I was just wondering... would be OK if I watched TV downstairs?"
"Of course," replied the father. "But why?"
"I know it sounds silly," laughed the girl, "but the clown statue is really creeping me out."
"The clown statue?" asked the father.
"Yeah, the clown statue in your bedroom," the girl replied.
The phone went silent for a moment.
"Listen to me very carefully," said the father. "Take the children and get out of the house. We will call the police. Go! Now!"
"What's wrong?" asked the girl.
The father gulped and replied, "We don't have a clown statue."
For a second, the babysitter just stood there, stunned. Then, she dropped the phone and raced upstairs and grabbed the children. Carrying one under each arm, she raced downstairs again and fled out into the street.
Huddled on the sidewalk, comforting the two children, the babysitterlooked up at the bedroom window and saw something that made her scream out in horror. Peeking through a gap in the curtains was the white, painted face of a clown. It stared at her for a moment, then sank back into the darkness.
Within minutes, the police arrived and cautiously entered the house. In the upstairs bedroom, they found a man dressed in a clown suit. When they arrested him, they found a knife concealed in his costume.
The clown turned out to be a mentally disturbed midget who was a convicted murderer and cold-blooded killer. The evil man had been stalking the family for months, lurking in their attic during the daytime and coming out to sneak around the house at night.
For weeks, the children had been complaining about a "clown statue" that stood in their room and watched them sleep, but the parents just dismissed this as nightmares.
