In 2003, a mysterious appearance of gnomes started plaguing Brattleby in Lincolnshire.
The neighbours and community were all as confused as each other, and it seemed that no-one knew what was causing the invasion.
That’s until the funeral of a village member this week. Peter Leighton, who lived in Brattleby, and whose funeral was held on Monday, had in his funeral announcement that he was responsible.
Unfortunately, however, while these gnomes were placed around the village as a source of amusement, it turns out that there have been gnome thefts in the Lincoln area recently.
“Very upsetting, to come home and see that space where the gnome was,” says Ron Broomfield, who has over 1700 gnomes at his house, and is believed to have one of the largest gnome collections in the world.
“Over the last couple of months, we’ve had a few which I had cemented down very well down the driveway, and they went for walkies. Eventually, the first one ended up at the police station”, he continued.
Between 2008 and 2012 there was one gnome stolen in Lincoln. Since then, there have been 11 stolen this past year, so far, there have been no arrests relating to these incidents.
Luke Botham reported on this for City Vibe, click the link below to play.