The scary clown craze that swept the nation is coming to a close, but in its hay day, clown sightings were being reported in all 50 states, and arrests were being made by police departments around the country to try to keep the clowns off the streets.

Given how short of a time frame it took for the clowns to spread across the nation, it’s hard to tell where they originated, but every case was generally the same. A person would dress up in a colorful suit and a scary Halloween clown mask. All dressed up they would then go out to a random spot in a town and just stand there, sometimes holding a knife. Residents of the town would report them to police or take a picture and post it to Twitter, the latter of which helped create the viral craze the clowns became.

The crackdown on clowns began not too soon after. Nine arrests were made in Alabama. In Bentonville, Arkansas, schools were shut down after two clowns were sighted on campus. Police departments made statements threatening to persecute clowns, and some people took matters into their own hands, posting videos of themselves chasing down the clowns and beating them.

All of this along with the short lifespan of Internet trends helped get the clowns off the streets, just in time for Halloween.