It's been less than a week since Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, but local residents are already fed up with the media circus tent that's enveloped their once-peaceful community.

So much so that town's people have apparently taken to posting "no media" and "no press" signs around Newtown, according to a report by Digital First Media.

"We need you to help us beg people to stop calling the victims," a local business owner told reporter Adrienne LaFrance. "They're in mourning. Someone actually pounded on a friend's door and, literally, they were shouting, 'Someone in this town has to start talking to us, this is our story.' That's how we're being treated."

Many Newtowners descended on the Facebook page of the Newtown Bee to share stories of harassment by members of the media.

"The phone calls from 7am-11pm need to stop," wrote Christine Wilford. "And coming to my doorstep was completely out of line. LEAVE US ALL ALONE."

The sentiment was shared, albiet more bluntly, by a local bar patron who complained to LaFrance that reporters were stalking residents. "It's like, fuck you," he said. "Go away. Leave us the fuck alone."

In an unconfirmed anecdote, another Bee reader claims a CBS news crew member falsely identified herself as a friend of a grieving mother in order to get a quote. "She came with a plant and so we let her on the property only to find out she was with the news," says Eileen Byrnes. "Some of these people just don't have a soul."

The Bee itself, meanwhile, appealed directly to "colleagues and journalist," asking them to keep their distance from the victims. "We acknowledge it is your right to try and make contact," the Bee said in a statement, "but we beg you to do what is right and let them grieve and ready their funeral plans in peace."

[photo via AP]