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Irregular News for 10.24.05
Yorktown, NY — Bernie Duffy arrived at his Mohegan Lake home one day this summer to see several lawn ornaments in his front yard — gnomes, fairies and the like.
"I thought my wife had bought them. I didn't think anything about it," he said.
Another couple of days passed, and Duffy saw more ornaments, this time in his backyard. Again, he thought his wife, Maria, had put them there.
"Then she said to me, 'Did you buy these?' " Duffy recalled yesterday.
Once he and his wife realized that neither one had bought the ornaments, Duffy turned them over to police.
"I figured it was probably someone stealing them from someone's house, and I was worried that if the owner drove by, they'd think that I stole them," he said.
As it turns out, the Duffys were among many residents who awoke or came home this past summer to find their lawns adorned with strange items, mostly small garden statues. Talk about roaming gnomes. Now, police, who have a collection of ornaments to rival a lawn-and-garden center, are trying to reunite them with their owners.
"For approximately the past three months, we've been receiving reports throughout town of numerous figurines being found on lawns," Lt. Donald Schuck said. "It's happened in all parts of town, and we have 30 to 35 items."
But so far, no one has filed a missing-gnome report, Schuck said. Detective Art Lander, who is investigating the great garden caper, said police had thought it might be a prank by some youngsters. So they checked with school officials to see if something was afoot. It wasn't.
"It seems to be the work of a serial lawn-ornament stealer," Lander joked. "We'll be contacting the FBI for a profiler."
Kidding aside, Schuck said the items, if not expensive, certainly hold some sentimental value. And because police need room in their evidence storage, they want the owners to come forward before they get rid of the stuff. The garden gnome has become a popular item thanks, in part, to the Travelocity Web site, which features a talking "roaming gnome" in its advertising campaign.
"While we don't condone the stealing of anything at Travelocity, especially gnomes, it's fun to see the spirit of his adventures coming through in other ways," said Joel Frey, a company spokesman. "We don't want anyone to get in trouble, by any means."
In Europe and elsewhere, several subversive groups have taken on the task of freeing captive garden gnomes. One site, www.freethegnomes.com, claims that it seeks an "end to oppressive gardening and freedom for garden gnomes everywhere."
While police have gotten a few chuckles out of the case, they are reminding people that stealing lawn ornaments, or possessing stolen ones, could result in criminal charges.
Full Story
Yorktown, NY — Bernie Duffy arrived at his Mohegan Lake home one day this summer to see several lawn ornaments in his front yard — gnomes, fairies and the like.
"I thought my wife had bought them. I didn't think anything about it," he said.
Another couple of days passed, and Duffy saw more ornaments, this time in his backyard. Again, he thought his wife, Maria, had put them there.
"Then she said to me, 'Did you buy these?' " Duffy recalled yesterday.
Once he and his wife realized that neither one had bought the ornaments, Duffy turned them over to police.
"I figured it was probably someone stealing them from someone's house, and I was worried that if the owner drove by, they'd think that I stole them," he said.
As it turns out, the Duffys were among many residents who awoke or came home this past summer to find their lawns adorned with strange items, mostly small garden statues. Talk about roaming gnomes. Now, police, who have a collection of ornaments to rival a lawn-and-garden center, are trying to reunite them with their owners.
"For approximately the past three months, we've been receiving reports throughout town of numerous figurines being found on lawns," Lt. Donald Schuck said. "It's happened in all parts of town, and we have 30 to 35 items."
But so far, no one has filed a missing-gnome report, Schuck said. Detective Art Lander, who is investigating the great garden caper, said police had thought it might be a prank by some youngsters. So they checked with school officials to see if something was afoot. It wasn't.
"It seems to be the work of a serial lawn-ornament stealer," Lander joked. "We'll be contacting the FBI for a profiler."
Kidding aside, Schuck said the items, if not expensive, certainly hold some sentimental value. And because police need room in their evidence storage, they want the owners to come forward before they get rid of the stuff. The garden gnome has become a popular item thanks, in part, to the Travelocity Web site, which features a talking "roaming gnome" in its advertising campaign.
"While we don't condone the stealing of anything at Travelocity, especially gnomes, it's fun to see the spirit of his adventures coming through in other ways," said Joel Frey, a company spokesman. "We don't want anyone to get in trouble, by any means."
In Europe and elsewhere, several subversive groups have taken on the task of freeing captive garden gnomes. One site, www.freethegnomes.com, claims that it seeks an "end to oppressive gardening and freedom for garden gnomes everywhere."
While police have gotten a few chuckles out of the case, they are reminding people that stealing lawn ornaments, or possessing stolen ones, could result in criminal charges.
Full Story