Coffee County man cuffed for clown claims
A Coffee County, Tenn., man is behind bars on a $100,000 bond after claiming he was the “clown who had been threatening children” and then threatening 911 dispatchers and their children.
George Randy Hoppe, 64, of Volunteer Avenue in Manchester, Tenn., was booked on a stalking charge Friday. Hoppe was arrested after investigating deputies worked out his identity even though the initial call to dispatchers came through an untraceable non-emergency line, according to Coffee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lucky Knott.
Authorities said Hoppe called the Coffee County Communications Center, identifying himself only as the clown that had threatened children.
In the last few months, creepy clown sightings have multiplied across the region and nation, forcing law enforcement to issue warnings not to dress up as a clown and scare people. Lying to authorities about creepy clown sightings can even result in charges of filing a false report, according
to officials across the region.
According to the arrest warrant in Coffee County, the caller police say is Hoppe started using “very lewd” language with the dispatcher and told her “he was going to harm children. He also allegedly stated that he was going to kidnap children and the dispatcher, cut their ears off and [commit] other lewd acts, the warrant states.
Then he called a second dispatcher on the same line and told her “he was to be waiting and kidnap her and [made] more lewd comments.”
That dispatcher asked the man calling where he was, and he told her he was at an address on Commodore Drive. But when deputies got there they found only an abandoned property, authorities said.
Stymied briefly, deputies returned to the communications center and listened to recordings of the 911 phone calls the man made.
One deputy thought he recognized the voice and officers headed to that man’s home on Volunteer Avenue, one street over from the first location they checked, Knott said.
When they spoke with Hoppe, the deputies got his cell phone and used it to call the communications center.
“[T]he man spoke to dispatchers who said it was the same voice and laugh they had heard,” Knott said.
Knott said Hoppe has no known history of making threats. Officials said Hoppe’s $100,000 bond was set by the county’s judicial commissioner. There was no answer at the Judicial Commission on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Hoppe faces a date in court on Oct. 24.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton @timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.