in this thread, DrFidelius said:
Alluding to the practice of stealing a garden gnome, travelling with it, taking pictures of it in front of famous landmarks and sending these back to the original owner as some kind of taunt.
I asked:
But the thread was doomed to closure as the OP wasn’t serious, however, I’d still like to know the history of this practice; does anyone know if there is an original famous instance of it?
The first time I heard about it was a story in Reader’s Digest, probably about 20 years ago. In the article, it was a pink flamingo, not a lawn gnome, but it was the same idea. At first the owners thought someone stole the pink flamingo, which wasn’t surprising, since many neighbors had complained about it. Then pictures started showing up periodically from all over Europe (IIRC). Eventually the pink flamingo reappeared on the lawn, I think with several stickers on it from the various places it had visited.
Reader’s digest just prints stories that writers send in, so who knows how long the story has really been around, but it’s at least a couple of decades.
Ah, yes, I remember reading your question, but felt I could not reply as I do not at all know of a famous firstinstance of it, you see. But, yes, they have been known to go off on travels, and send postcards or pictures home.
btw - I gather the garden gnoes in Britain occupy about the same …um… niche as those pink flamingo thing in the U.S. That is my impression, at any rate. Sort of terribly laughably tasteless, but so kitsch they are sort of iconic in a joke sort of way?
Well, I can tell you the practice has been around for a good 30 years, and I suspect if I were an older Celyn, I would be able to make that a higher number. Trouble is, of course, I simply do not of of the recorded firstinstance**,. you see.
I’ll be intrigued to find if anyone does find out. With luck, there should be enough U.K. Dopers around for someone to know.
If they travel by subway, they will be the Metro-gnomes! 
…Old joke from piano lessons, couldn’t resist!
I’ve heard stories like this, too. In my area it happened to a statue of St. Peter. About a year later, Pete returned with a photo album.
Apparently all sorts of things are traveling the world. Granted, not all are stolen, but still, I’ve never been out of the US:
Beans
A Mannequin
Beer
Mr. Potato Head
Lawn Leprechauns
There’s also this page. My French isn’t really that good (dat’s not what yo mama said!), but I’m pretty sure it’s a Garden Gnome Liberation Society. (well, Movement)
Les Gnomes
Jinx: That one caused actual physical pain.
I personally saw a globe-trotting garden gnome no later than 1985 in Auckland, New Zealand. He was temporarily ensconced on a balcony on a building overlooking downtown Queen Street. I was told by friends that he had been kidnapped from a garden in England and was being passed from traveller to traveller, and sending postcards back to his “parents.” (I seem to recall there was article on him in the Sunday magazine of one of the local papers, too. I am not certain of the exact year, but I lived in Auckland 1983-1985.)
I’m surprised no one has linked to this yet. Sometimes its not so innocent :eek:
That happened here once…in this case, it was a concrete goose. It was funny because the owner was posting death threats to the kidnapper on thier front doorstep and when it was finally returned they were all thankful and huggy and stuff. Heh.
I’ve actually participated in a gnome-pilfering incident in my youth. I can’t remember why, but I didn’t really like this one girl, so me and a couple friends stole her (parents) gnome. I was only 17 at the time, so I couldn’t take the gnome to Europe, but we took it to several local landmarks and had a really good time with it. Eventually we found a gullible cab driver who agreed to drive the gnome home along with his souvenirs. I guess Kyra had to pay for the cab, cause we didn’t. Ha ha.
Me and my friends also used to love going “gnoming” as we called it, just stealing any lawn ornaments we could get our hands on. My personal favorites were the big fat Mexican guy (we left a note that complained about being left out in the rain and ignored and he was sick of it) which actually got stolen from us a few times before we put it back (2 years later) with a note that said he’d seen the world and he liked their doorstep just fine.
But the greatest story ever involves a lifesize cement pig. My friends had tried to steal it because they hated the people but it weighed several hundred pounds, so they just pushed it over and left a note that said “your pig is dead.” Well, I vowed to steal the pig someday, so one night my friend was having a party while his parents were out of town and there were lots of people, and we were drinking, so we went to steal the pig. It took 8 people to get it in my car, but we got it. And left a note that said, “your pig is gone.” Not really having much use for it, though, we left it in my friend’s garage, and his mom got sick of it and gave it to her friend, who put it out back by her pool. Well, 4 years later, she gets her deck replaced, and the company who did it took a picture to use in an ad. So the pig’s in the picture, hanging out in the back yard. Well, the original owner sees the ad and calls the company. They won’t give out customer information, blah blah blah, but she calls them so much they finally say, All right, it’s in this general area and the house is this color. So she calls the cops, harassing them so much that they finally take the woman through this neighborhood, looking for this house. Somehow, she finds the right house, the cops go talk to my friend’s mom’s friend, and take the pig back. She (my friend’s mom’s friend) was really pissed off, cause she liked the pig a lot. I don’t think she realized that we had stolen it.