Man who dressed as clown convicted in theft

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- This was not a happy clown -- at least, not a very nice one.
A man dressed as a clown who assaulted a man and stole his bicycle at last year's Burning Man festival has been sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $21,000 restitution.
Johnny Goodman was caught after the victim's friends tracked him down.
Dennis Hinkamp had to have two plates implanted in his arm after he was attacked at the annual counterculture festival.
Although his attacker disappeared into the crowd of painted and costumed celebrants, Hinkamp's friends launched an Internet search to find him. They linked him to a group called Anarchoclowns and finally to a hospital in Washington, where Johnny Goodman was a nursing student.
"If you're a nursing student in Seattle and you're a clown, you're pretty identifiable," Hinkamp's friend, Jim Graham of Felton, Calif., told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Goodman confessed and was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit theft, District Attorney Jim Shirley said.