NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA — A spree of creepy clowns have been sighted throughout the Carolinas lately.

It began in South Carolina when several witnesses reported seeing clowns trying to lure children into the woods near a Greenville County apartment complex.

For about two weeks in late August, sheriff’s deputies were called to the Fleetwood Manor Apartments after reports of clowns with white-painted faces were acting strangely in the area and using money to lure kids in the woods.

Since then, the clowns seem to have spread to North Carolina.

On Sept. 4 around 8:30 p.m., a similar incident occurred in Winston-Salem in the 1200 block of E. 29th Street. Two children saw and one adult heard a clown trying to lure the kids into the woods. The children reportedly ran away when police were called.

Four hours later, a second clown was seen two miles away in the 1600 block of Hope Lane in the Aster Park Apartment complex. Two other children reported a clown wearing white overalls, white gloves and red shoes with red bushy hair, a white face and a red nose offered them treats to come into the woods.

Two days later, on Sept. 6, at another apartment complex off Old Ridge Road near Interstate 73 in Greensboro, a man reportedly saw another clown near the woods. The man, who lived at the The Park at Oakridge apartments, was standing on his balcony when he saw a clown with a white mask, red curly hair, a yellow polka dotted shirt, blue pants and clown shoes emerge from the woods. The man, a father of two, grabbed a machete and chased the clown away.