It was the Friday morning before Thanksgiving. Sandy Beecroft was running a bit late for work. She rushed outside and ran to her car without taking a look at her front garden that, the garden gnomes’ home.
When she read her boyfriend’s text message just before lunch and found out somebody stole 10 of the 20 gnomes outside, she felt sick to her stomach.
“It’s been two years since we have them out there. I just couldn’t believe somebody would go and take ten of them. I could understand one or two, but not that many,” Beecroft said.
Many of her gnomes come from different places in Canada and the United States. She has been collecting them for quite a few years. Before the theft, she had approximately 30 gnomes inside and outside the house.
“I just think they’re funny. Some people think they’re creepy or disturbing. But there is something about them that I like,” the 31-year-old said.
Originally from Ontario, she said her family gives them as gifts to her. Recently, she got a little female gnome that was an opera singer. Other gnomes are up to three feet tall.
“I got some of them when I was in elementary school and we had a little garden in front of the house too.”
Beecroft did an estimate of the stolen gnomes’ value; she said it’s around $300. Her boyfriend Jason McCloskey added it’s also the emotional value that’s irreplaceable.
“It’s disheartening to see that someone steals things like that,” he said. “It just makes you angry.”
One of their neighbours has some gnomes out as well, but never had any stolen. When she told her neighbours about what had happened to her, they couldn’t believe it.
Nobody saw what happened that night. Beecroft and McCloskey think it’s probably been some young university students. Beecroft said she had friends in university who took mailboxes home after a night at the bar. However, they brought all of them back the next morning.
“I know students do stupid things sometimes,” she said. “It would be nice if they could bring them back. It would be very nice.”
So far, she has posted photos on Facebook, talked to people at work and even went to look for them in the nearby Odell Park in case it just had been a prank. She also wrote a letter to the Daily Gleaner.
A big sign that read “Please return my gnomes you stole” was sitting in front of her house to draw passerby’s attention. So far, she hasn’t heard anything.
“I thought about contacting the police,” Beecroft said, but her boyfriend told her it’s better to try find the gnomes themselves, because the police probably don’t have the time for it.
Fredericton Police said Beecroft should absolutely report the theft. They couldn’t promise to necessarily look for the gnomes, but sometimes lost or stolen items get turned in and Beecroft’s gnomes could be among them.
Beecroft said she hopes to get her gnomes back, eventually.
“I like to think so. I like to think that there are some decent people out there.”
“I think most people think it’s just a joke. They’re like ‘Oh, that’s funny! That’s what people do, they take their gnomes.’ But it’s ten of them though. That’s a big number.”
