# Someone stole my last gnome \*sniff\* **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 28, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173 "2003-08-28T12:25:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/1 "2003-08-28T12:25:38Z")
Darn kids. When my first one dissapeared I thought, “haha, I’m going to get little postcards detailing his journey and then he’ll return.” No such luck. Then a few weeks later the next one vanished. Then another, and now my last one (and my gazing ball.) I miss them. If I had $300 I’d get a GPS and hide it inside one. ---
**Author:** ![Chicago\_Faucet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chicago_faucet/32/13910_2.png) [@Chicago\_Faucet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicago_Faucet)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/2 "2003-08-28T13:02:30Z")
Personally, I like garden gnomes. I have one myself. But I think that the gazing balls are a bit tacky. I used to steal my neighbors plastic goose, if it is of any consolation. ---
**Author:** ![Mac\_Guffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2bfe46/32.png) [@Mac\_Guffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mac_Guffin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/3 "2003-08-28T13:32:21Z")
Buy another one, and rig it up so that if anyone takes it, they get sprayed with skunk oil or some other distastefull smell. Or a land mine. (Ok, not a land mine, tho it’s tempting isn’t it?) ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/4 "2003-08-28T20:22:12Z")
Look up the “Gnome liberation front”, though I believe they mostly commit their terracottarist acts in France. ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/5 "2003-08-28T20:58:03Z")
Damn French terrorist, now there are stealing American Gnomes? When can we declare war on them. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/6 "2003-08-28T21:48:24Z")
maybe they went to Big Brother tv program cause they had tons of them & the people had to open them with a hammer. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/7 "2003-08-29T01:29:20Z")
> [@](#): > > But I think that the gazing balls are a bit tacky. I stuck a bunch of fake flowers in the stand so now it’s even tackier 😃 . I think I’ll cement my next gnome to the steps. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/8 "2003-08-29T01:59:25Z")
Aw…{{{ **HDS** }}}…I collect lawn gnomes, myself, I’d be so mad if anyone took mine! I hope you get them back, or at least, catch the little bastards that did it. They have a lot of gnomes at ebay, if you’re looking to get some new ones. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/9 "2003-08-29T01:59:43Z")
Aw…{{{ **HDS** }}}…I collect lawn gnomes, myself, I’d be so mad if anyone took mine! I hope you get them back, or at least, catch the little bastards that did it. They have a lot of gnomes at ebay, if you’re looking to get some new ones. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/10 "2003-08-29T03:38:42Z")
Thanks for the tip, I’ll check ebay. I sometimes think that the reason God did not give me a lot of money is that He didn’t want me to have 300 gnomes in the yard :-). ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/11 "2003-08-29T04:16:49Z")
Gnomes… ah the under appreciated art of Gnome Hunting… I have a few gnomes myself. Of course I live in an apartment building and these were… aquired by some gnome hunting friends. I myself have not taken part in these activities as I like to think the gnomes prefer to stay in their own habitat. As to the taking pictures and sending them back to the owners, I seem to recall last summer watching a couple of girls at an outdoor concert take the gnome into our ‘dance floor’ snap a couple of shots and disappear… ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/12 "2003-08-29T17:06:22Z")
Reportedly, some twisted soul has been sending these purloined plaster icons to Hideo Gnomo and Gnomar Garciaparra. The ballplayers are puzzled about this curious US custom. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-stole-my-last-gnome-sniff/198173/13 "2003-08-29T17:10:36Z")
Head on down to Home Depot and get one of those anchor stakes, the six-foot kind with the big steel barbs. Drill out the bottom of the gnome, and fill with five-minute epoxy. Set the top of the stake into the cavity, in the epoxy. Wait about ten minutes until the epoxy sets up solid, then sink the anchor stake into the ground until the gnome is flush with the surface. Fill and tamp the hole thoroughly. Anyone who manages to steal that gnome after you do THAT has gone to far more effort than I ever went to for vandalism’s sake. And I was a determined vandal, when I was a kid…