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Patty S:
                   

Apparently, lots of gnomes & other garden ornaments are in custody at the Springfield, Oregon police station. :yikes:

I would copy & paste the article, but it has an "all rights reserved" copyright on it, so you'll have to go HERE to read the details.

patches:
Oh, Patty, this is a riot!  :rofl1: I'm not into gnomes, but I remember when we had something similar happen around here.  Somebody had collected a lot of those pink flamingos and stuck them in someone's yard.    :nutz: 

Patty S:
Something like that was happening when we first moved here.  A couple hundred garden gnomes went missing over a period of a few months, & the cops finally got a lead on it. The gnomes were all found in some guy's garage... (in the neighborhood where we bought our house!) :scaredy: This area has a reputation of being one of the better parts of town... guess a bad guy musta snuck in! :giggle:

I never did hear what happened to him after he was charged with Gnome Napping... maybe I should look in the archives of our local newspaper site. 

patches:
Geesh, I really can't remember what happened here, but I think it was some kind of high school prank or initiation.  :ScratchHead: Actually, I don't believe there were any formal charges filed on this, I think the owners just came and claimed their property (if they even wanted it).  :rofl1:   :dunno:

Patty S:
Well, I looked around in the archives & could only find the beginning of the story. It's sorta funny....


--- Quote ---Gnome thefts bedevil Roseburg
The News-Review - Roseburg, Oregon
 July 11, 2003

Gnome owners of Roseburg beware -- there is mischief afoot and your prized lawn ornaments are not safe.

A group calling themselves "The Gnome Liberation Organization" have been "liberating" the miniature yard decorations from lawns across Roseburg and leaving notes for their victims that decry the evils of gnome "slave-ownership."

Kline Street resident Effie Hagedorn first learned her gnome had been stolen when she peeked out her front door Monday morning to check on her hanging strawberry plant. She found an angry note signed by the "GLO" on her porch.

"Gnome Slave Owner," the note began, "We have received intelligence of an enslaved gnome at your place of residence. Whether you have come across this gentle woodland creature through deliberate actions or innocent ignorance, we care not ... It is now in a better place."

Folklore has it that gnomes are ancient mythical creatures that guard treasures buried deep inside of the earth. Hagedorn insists, however, that her gnome was merely guarding her garden. "They had to come into our yard like 90 feet to get it," she said, indignantly.

Hagedorn's figurine was given to her by a friend. It stands all of a foot tall and its bearded face is crowned by a red hat shaped like a flowerpot. A bird is perched on one shoulder of the figurine's blue jacket and the gnome holds a garden trowel in his hand. She said. "I just figured, whimsically ... that he was helping me in my garden."

Strangely enough, gnome theft is not a novel crime.

An Internet search for "Gnome Liberation Organization" revealed an entire subculture of purported gnome activists who use Web sites like www.freethegnomes.com to advocate civil disobedience on behalf of the kitschy creatures.

Hucrest resident Mary Bjelland thinks her gnome was stolen by a group of six teens seen cruising her neighborhood recently with their headlights off late at night. She brought her note from the GLO to The News-Review Thursday, and is not amused by the prank. "I just bought this gnome for $37," she said. "I had it for less than 10 days." She said hers was taken sometime Saturday night or Sunday morning from her North Apache Drive home. "It should be a warning to people," she said. "If I had known that this was something going on I wouldn't have put a gnome out there, especially a new one."

Bjelland knows of at least three other neighbors who have been similarly deprived of their "woodland creatures." She expressed concern over the mock threat made in the GLO note, which reads, "Further reports of gnome slaves on your premises will not be tolerated. We will excuse your ignorance ... this one time."

"If they hit gnomes now, what are they gonna hit next week, or next month?" Bjelland worried.

The pranksters conclude their note by expressing hope their victims may come to view their lost lawn folk as sentient beings. "We hope that you will aid us in our quest to dispel the common myth that gnomes are simply inanimate yard decorations."

Such a quest may lead them to a fine or even the inanimate walls of a jail cell, however. "Kids do silly things," said Roseburg Police Department Sgt. Mark Nickel. But "if it's a theft, we treat it as a theft, funny or not."

However, Nickel said, in these cases "usually their intent is not to permanently deprive the person" of the gnome, in which case a charge of criminal mischief is more likely.
--- End quote ---

I do remember hearing that the local GLO ring leader had been arrested & that he was an adult.  Maybe they banished him to the "woodlands"! :laughmao:

My kids have started giving me yard figurines, cuz they say I'm "hard to buy for", :rolleyes1: but they know I don't really want trolls gnomes. I've seen some really cute collections of them, but they're just not "my thing". (I have enough stuff to weed around as it is, & I also don't need to have things in my yard that I might need to go bail out of the cop shop!) :wink5:

Now I gotta go look up "kitschy"! :Wacko:

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