[RhinofromWA]

This is from 2000, but that same thing happened in the last week with different results.

Local News: Monday, July 17, 2000

Gnomeowner riled by prank

Louis T. Corsaletti
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

The odyssey of a Bothell gnome is over, but the owner isn't very happy.

The concrete lawn ornament was stolen from the back yard of her Canyon Park home a few months ago. She dismissed it as a practical joke.

But on June 5 the apparent prank took a new twist when an envelope arrived in the mail for her 5-year-old son. Inside was a handwritten note:

"I am writing to you because your gnome can't read or write. Several of us garden gnomes have left for a summer vacation trip. Please tell your dad, mom and dog not to worry. I'll try and write or send a postcard. We will be back in 2 or 3 weeks. Love, Mr. Wigglesworth."

Last Tuesday, the woman found the roving gnome on her front porch, with a Mickey Mouse hat on and her son's name embroidered on the back of the hat.

A photo album was next to the statue and inside was a copy of the letter she had received and 14 photos of the gnome in various locations throughout the Southwest.

One photo showed a man holding the gnome in front of his face and standing behind a sign. The sign said, "Welcome to New Mexico." Other photos were taken in Arizona, national parks in California and at campgrounds.

Bothell police Officer Dione Thompson talked to a neighbor, who admitted to the gnome-napping.

The woman told Thompson she wants the gnome and hat destroyed but will keep the album.

"The incident caused grief for our family," the woman said. "We feared an unknown stalker might be targeting our son. It was fearful."

The woman and her husband declined to file charges against the 30-year-old neighbor.

Related story had the same thing happen ....owners (older lady and her husband) didn't notice it gone. The gnome was returned with a photo album of it's journey. THe lady wasn't mad. She said it looked like fun and next time the gnome-napper should kidnapp them as they could use a vacation like he showed the gnome.

I couldn't find the recent story online but the similairities are amazing....but with different outcomes. To funny.

 

[dh girlie]

Isn't this an old wives tale? Or an urban legend? I've heard about this with pink flamingo figurines from peoples yards...I wonder if the person whose gnome was stolen also knew someone who knew someone who knew someone else who knew someone who got a fried rat in their Kentucky Fried Chicken?

 

[RhinofromWA]

Isn't this an old wives tale? Or an urban legend? I've heard about this with pink flamingo figurines from peoples yards...I wonder if the person whose gnome was stolen also knew someone who knew someone who knew someone else who knew someone who got a fried rat in their Kentucky Fried Chicken?

Well the recent episode was on the local news station and they showed pics of from the album.

The article above was from our major regional newspaper. Seattle Times

Maybe that is where they got the idea?

 

[jmvar]

Is that were they got the idea from in that French movie Amelie?

 

[dh girlie]

Well the recent episode was on the local news station and they showed pics of from the album.

The article above was from our major regional newspaper. Seattle Times

Maybe that is where they got the idea?

Oh ok...the news NEVER lies...hahaha...jk....I have heard about that with the pink flamingo figures before...

 

[stinkyboy]

This is a ripoff from a European movie (I don't remember the name) where a daughter does this (through the help of a flight attendant friend) to her dad's gnome in an effort to get her grieving dad out of the house. I love that it's being done for real!

Amelie, that's it.

 

[Cooter Brown]

some f#cking jackhole napped 2, not just 1, but 2 of my lawn hobbits off of my front porch last week. I made a report to the police for the simple fact that if I see them anywhere, they'll know what reason to put on the theif's death certificate.

f#cking b@stards

 

[RhinofromWA]

some f#cking jackhole napped 2, not just 1, but 2 of my lawn hobbits off of my front porch last week. I made a report to the police for the simple fact that if I see them anywhere, they'll know what reason to put on the theif's death certificate.

f#cking b@stards

What is the difference between a lawn hobbit and a yard gnome?

 

[urbaindk]

Some good family friends of of my family growing up had a concrete rabbit stolen from them and they got ransom notes and post cards from all over the country for something like 10 years running. Then one day the rabbit reappeared in their back yard unharmed. I saw a few of the notes so I can personally vouch for the authenticity of this particular case. I don't know if they actually knew who took it. They might have had a friend take it to screw with us kids when we were little but I don't know. They never fessed up to it.

 

[Westy]

I think this is something that has been doen in one form or another for quite awhile. I always thought that is where those roaming gnome comercials came from.

 

[bean]

It's real, there's one sitting in my brother's bedroom right now, and we've got pictures of it taken in various locations of about five states.

 

[Wumpus]

STRASBOURG, France -- July 11, 2001 - More than 100 garden gnomes and other statues have been found assembled on a roundabout in eastern France, a police spokesman said.

Some were set up to spell out "Free the Gnomes," leading police to believe that the prank culprits are members of a group known as the Garden Gnome Liberation Front .

Residents around the town of Chavelot reported the miniatures stolen the night before. Soon after they were found set up on the roundabout.

The spokesman said: "It was a bit like a giant creche. Everything had been carefully set up."

The group, which advocates "freeing" gnomes and "returning them to the wild," gained public attention in the 1990s.

But after a ringleader was fined and sent to prison in 1997 for his part in the disappearance of 150 gnomes, the group faded from the limelight.

In 1998 it came back into the public eye after staging a mass "suicide" with 11 gnomes dangling by their necks under a bridge at Briey in eastern France.

A letter found nearby said: "When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decoration."

A Paris garden exhibition was the group's target last year, where they stole about 20 gnomes during a night raid

 

[urbaindk]

It just goes to show that there is probably a cult for *everything*. From freeing gnomes, to spearing Britney, to riding monkeys...

 

[Damn True]

My drinking vessel has been swiped at a hash on two occasions. I have photos of it sitting atop the Great Wall of China, at the DMZ in Korea, at the Great Pyramids of Giza, on London Bridge and being held beneath the scrotum of a camel. There are other photos but none as treasured as the last.

 

[dh girlie]

STRASBOURG, France -- July 11, 2001 - More than 100 garden gnomes and other statues have been found assembled on a roundabout in eastern France, a police spokesman said.

Some were set up to spell out "Free the Gnomes," leading police to believe that the prank culprits are members of a group known as the Garden Gnome Liberation Front .

Residents around the town of Chavelot reported the miniatures stolen the night before. Soon after they were found set up on the roundabout.

The spokesman said: "It was a bit like a giant creche. Everything had been carefully set up."

The group, which advocates "freeing" gnomes and "returning them to the wild," gained public attention in the 1990s.

But after a ringleader was fined and sent to prison in 1997 for his part in the disappearance of 150 gnomes, the group faded from the limelight.

In 1998 it came back into the public eye after staging a mass "suicide" with 11 gnomes dangling by their necks under a bridge at Briey in eastern France.

A letter found nearby said: "When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decoration."

A Paris garden exhibition was the group's target last year, where they stole about 20 gnomes during a night raid

Oh those zany french...I didn't realize any of them actually had a sense of humor.

 

[TheInedibleHulk]

some f#cking jackhole napped 2, not just 1, but 2 of my lawn hobbits off of my front porch last week. I made a report to the police for the simple fact that if I see them anywhere, they'll know what reason to put on the theif's death certificate.

f#cking b@stards

It was probably the good taste fairy setting things right.

 

[Damn True]

Oh those zany french...I didn't realize any of them actually had a sense of humor.

Of course they do, they dig Jerry Lewis don't they?

 

[dh girlie]

Of course they do, they dig Jerry Lewis don't they?

hahaha!

 

[dh girlie]

Of course they do, they dig Jerry Lewis don't they?

Oh..and good thing for the Americans or they would have been reading those subtitles in German!