Found -  80 gnomes in black bags

About 80 homesick gnomes might soon rejoin their grieving owners. At 7:30 a.m. Saturday,  officers on the Colorado Greeley police department's late shift acting on a tip, arrived at a home in the 4400 block of Pioneer Drive to discover 80 gnomes, some in good condition, some broken, in black plastic bags, surrounded by a group of kids.  Sgt.Dave Adams said " We are a round-the-clock operation," said Adams, lauding the heads-up work of the late-shift officers. "We don't rest."

Police don't consider the juveniles suspects in the gnome-napping case, Adams said. He said the juveniles most likely found the bags. Police arrested one juvenile on unrelated charges.

Police placed the gnomes in evidence, where they sit awaiting their owners. Adams said police plan to call people who reported their gnomes stolen to come identify and pick up their pint-size friends.

Upon hearing the news, Elsie Schnorr, who had 30 gnomes stolen from her front lawn on May 31 and June 2, called Greeley police. She said she plans to go as soon as she's notified to look for her gnomes.

"That would be wonderful. I could handle that," Schnorr said. "I could identify every one of them. My name isn't on them, but I know which ones are mine. Most of mine are one-of-kind."

Schnorr estimated her 30 gnomes are worth about $600, at $20-$30 each. She said she figured they were gone for good or had been sold at a flea market. She's replaced the gnomes in her front yard with frogs.

She'd prefer her gnomes.

"If I can find them, doggamit, I'll get them back," Schnorr said.

Finding the big loot Saturday could help solve the mysterious gnome-nappings that plagued Greeley this summer.

The gnome-napping saga began May 31 when thieves took 16 gnomes from Schnorr's front yard. The thieves returned to Schnorr's house, just outside of Greeley and Evans near 35th Avenue and 37th Street, two nights later and stole 14 more gnomes.

The following week, on June 9, central Greeley resident Tammy Johnson reported that thieves had swiped 10 of her gnomes in two nights. That same day, Weld County Sheriff's Office deputies followed up an anonymous tip to a rural Evans house where someone reported as many as 80 gnomes in their yard.

Deputies were unable to connect the collection of gnomes to the thefts.

More reports of gnome thefts were made in the following weeks and theories began sprouting up about possible serial gnome-nappers or the involvement of the Gnome Liberation Front.
 

Formed in 2000, the GLF began in Europe with its moto "Free the garden gnomes," and the movement spread to the United States. Apparently, stealing gnomes from yards or gardens earns people membership.

On June 13, the saga took a strange twist when Johnson found an abused gnome in her front yard, its eyes blackened with ink, bandages on its head, its arm in a sling and one foot covered with bandages. Red nail polish resembling blood was painted on his bandages and nose and on his little, pointy hat.

A note addressed to Tribune reporter Mike Peters accompanied the gnome that read:

"BACK OFF MIKE PETERS This is getting ugly. Beware. Hee, hee."

Peters responded to the threatening note in a column in the June 18 Tribune. In the column, he wrote, "The note is obviously from the GLF. ... After looking closely into the group's activities, we've come to a simple conclusion: The GLF is nuts."

He told the group, "I ain't scared of you."

Greeley police don't have any suspects. The Weld County Sheriff's Office, which has also received numerous reports of missing gnomes, hasn't identified suspects either, said Under sheriff Margie Martinez.

Schnorr derided whoever is behind the gnome-nappings.
"If they stole them to throw them away, that's pretty sad," Schnorr said. "If they stole them, that's pathetic, period."

Brady McCombs, Greeley Tribune
July 17, 2005