A pair of Dunedin septuagenarians are worried they might be the target of a gnome-napping ring after more than a dozen little plaster men went missing from a display they started purely for the pleasure of others.
Gnome-lover Pam Scott (70) and her neighbour Mary Anderson (76) started the grotto in an undisclosed location in an unidentified wood somewhere in Dunedin late last year.
"We go walking often there and one day we came across this dead log in the middle of [the wood] and I thought it would make a great grotto, and decided to put a gnome in there, just for fun, to see what happened," Mrs Scott said.
What happened was someone stole the gnome.
But a few days later they got a pleasant surprise.
"We thought we were seeing things, he [the gnome] was back, and he had a friend."
More small gnomes and other ornaments starting appearing in the grotto and the ladies also added more, until there was "quite a little farm going on" made up of about 20 gnomes and other ornaments.
"It became quite popular. People would stop when we were there and say to us how much their children liked them. They didn't know we started it, we just did it to give people some pleasure."
Gnomes would come and go with seeming regularity, but about two weeks ago, the ladies noticed gnomes going missing and not returning.
Then one day most of the gnomes, about 10, disappeared overnight.
They had not complained to police because, "truthfully", they were surprised the grotto had lasted that long, being, as it was, so near a public walking track, Mrs Anderson said.
But after reading a story in the ODT yesterday about University of Otago students, caught by police with some allegedly stolen gnomes in Oamaru, they wondered if maybe their gnomes had made their way north - or possibly to some students' bedrooms.
Police said the arrested students had claimed to be taking part in a tradition to "liberate" garden gnomes.
Mrs Anderson said both she and Mrs Scott had hoped people would take as much pleasure from the grotto as they did and have enough respect to leave things there for others to enjoy.
"It did look so lovely, and now it's spoilt, because people are taking things," Mrs Anderson said.
