Send in the clowns.
And then the cops.
A teen wearing a clown mask with bright red orange hair was arrested Tuesday, charged with the somewhat arcane offense of wearing a mask or hood on a public road, as well as the more mundane crime of obstructing or resisting an officer without violence.
About 1:10 p.m. Tuesday, a deputy spotted the clown-masked man, later identified as Matthew Lopez, and at least one other person walking south on 58th Street North, the Hillsborough County sheriff's office said.
They then headed west through a wooded path near the rear of open offices. A deputy tailed them until a marked Temple Terrace police unit arrived. When the deputy tried to make contact, Lopez and another person ran, an arrest report states.
They were found near 58th Street and 122nd Avenue East.
It's not clear why Lopez, who turned 19 today, was wearing a mask, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said. Lopez was charged with two misdemeanors and has been released on $750 bail.
A juvenile, who has not been named, also was charged with a misdemeanor.
This isn't the first time someone has been charged with wearing a mask in public, though it's "pretty uncommon," Carter said.
The charge is based on a 1951 law designed to combat the Ku Klux Klan, part of the section of Florida's statutes dealing with criminal anarchy and treason.
In October 2008, Tampa police arrested Walsh Ian Nichols after he was spotted wearing a Batman mask in Ybor City.
But a judge dismissed the charges against the Caped Crusader and ordered police to return Nichols' custom-made cowl.
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