SAN DIEGO -- Creeped out in the comfort of their own cozy neighborhood bar.
Patrons, freezing with beers in hand, once they saw a man in a creepy clown mask pacing and staring in at them.
Jacob Nikos stood behind the bar and took a double take.
“He was looking in the mirror, just looking through, like tripping out,” he said.
Nikos couldn't believe what was staring back at him.
It was a man in this scary clown mask, leering in at people just trying to enjoy a beer on a Sunday night.
"A couple patrons came up to me and said this guy's creeping' us out, can you guys get rid of him? So we kind of went outside to talk to him. See if he could leave,” Nikos said.
The man tried to get into businesses up and down park boulevard, briefly getting inside one restaurant.
Businesses owners confronted the man, who witnesses say became upset - yelling he isn't doing anything wrong.
"It got really weird when he started running into different places up and down the street," Nikos said.
They chased him off the street together.
Police arrived 10 minutes later, but didn't arrest the man. A San Diego police spokesman says officers did not arrest the man because he did not appear to be intoxicated. He said the man agreed to leave the area. Officers did not report the man having a mask.
“Yeah when I saw him talking to police he didn’t have the mask on, but he definitely had it on when he was looking in the windows and creeping out our female clients," Nikos said.
Still, the creepy clown's appearance has left the entire block shaken - it's a phenomenon that's put the nation - and San Diego on alert.
Earlier this month, police monitoring schools in La Jolla and El Cajon after clown sightings.
"I guess we have to have a clown watch here," Nikos said.
Now back behind the bar, Nikos hopes the only creepy clown sightings at small bar are those in the Halloween decorations all over the walls.
