Super-creepy Pennywise floats to NJ backyard — owner burns that clown

HARRINGTON PARK — A woman said she's still trying to wrap her head around the mysterious, murderous clown doll that floated onto her property over the weekend.

Renee Jensen said she and her boyfriend were in her backyard on Saturday around 3 p.m., when she noticed something graze the gate of her privacy fence.

Jensen went to check it out, thinking maybe a bird had died and fallen, when she found the doll laying on its belly on the ground.

Though she read the Stephen King novel, "IT" and saw the TV miniseries that predated the Warner Brothers hit horror movie and its upcoming sequel, Jensen said she didn't recognize the character right away.

Jensen said she only has one neighboring home in the immediate vicinity. She said the residents, a quiet couple, weren't around and "it didn’t come from there."

After searching for the doll online, and seeing it appears to be a toy sold at the Hot Topic store franchise, Jensen posted about the encounter on Facebook, both in a Bergen County residents group and a moms group.

She said other group members convinced her to contact police, even though she thought it might seem "silly."

Jensen said the responding officers were just as mystified, and didn't want to take the doll with them. Instead, they took a few photos and advised her to get rid of it.

So, she tried to burn it — which was harder than she thought it would be. After dousing the doll with olive oil, she eventually used paper as kindling to get the fire strong enough to destroy the creepy "drop-in."

Jensen's two kids, a 10-year-old and 12-year-old, weren't home, and her boyfriend had to leave, so she locked her doors and slept with a knife at her bedside that night.

She said a drone dropping the doll seems to be the best possible explanation so far, and she wonders if it was part of a promotional plot ahead of the movie sequel hitting theaters.

Jensen also is amused with how much global attention the whole encounter has attracted, saying “I do a lot of meaningful stuff in the community — and this is what I get attention for?”

"IT Chapter Two" will be out in less than three weeks, on Sept. 6.

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