MACON, Ga. — Imagine this: you're in the Walmart checkout line, you turn around and see a man dressed as a scary clown behind you.
They happened to a few people this week at the Walmart on Gray Highway in Macon. Several people posted on a Facebook thread saying the man scared them in the parking lot, running between cars, and even up the aisles inside.
Wednesday night, all was quiet at the Walmart, except for the driving rain. Earlier this week, sparks flew... from Trey Gerald's knee pads.
Gerald is an aspiring scare artist. Carefully crafting characters, Gerald loves to scare and act. He shares his videos and characters on TikTok.
"He's scary, he's creepy, he's grimacing," Gerald said as he described his character, Buzzsaw the Clown.
He's a novice scare actor trying to get off the ground, but his aspirations are sky-high. He's inspired by the Freddy Kreuger movies.
"I saw people wearing masks at first, acting and stuff. I thought, 'Oh, it's just masks and costumes,'" Gerald said. "Then, I saw this one movie. It was Freddy Kreuger. And that didn't look like masks."
Some shoppers, like Brandi Goodson, weren't as inspired by Gerald's performance.
"We hurried to get out of Walmart quickly. And then he got behind us in self-checkout. So I panicked really, really bad," Goodson said.
She was there with her daughter, Layla Crosby.
"My mom made it a little worse because she was over there panicking and stuff," Crosby laughed.
They say even though Gerald scared them, they're glad to know he's not malicious.
"I understand what he's trying to do, building a name, a brand for himself. It's just a really scary way to do it, in a public Walmart, where people don't know he's doing it for entertainment purposes," Goodson explained.
So Gerald, as Jangles or Buzzsaw, or another character, will keep sliding, hoping that more people will understand he's just trying to have some fun and achieve his scream dreams.
"I'm not a threat. I love everyone," Gerald said.
Gerald says he does understand people may be nervous around him. He says he'll continue to make sure people know he's not a threat.
He just got a call Wednesday: he'll work at a haunted house this fall, which is one of his goals.
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