80 gnomes kidnapped
The tiny, bearded ornaments were taken by the self-styled Gnome Liberation Front from homes in the town of Saint-Die-des-Vosges.
They resurfaced lined up on the steps of the local church on Sunday morning.
Police have never caught the culprits, but the gnomes' owners seem strangely reluctant to come forward to claim their stolen property.
Yet so far, only a handful of gnome owners have turned up to collect their missing property.
The other gnomes remain locked in their dusty police cupboard until they are claimed.
C. Wyatt BBC News, Paris
Fatal attraction for divers
A secret garden at the bottom of Wastwater in the Lake District has been blamed for the deaths of a number of divers. But police efforts to remove the gnomes have been thwarted as the underwater garden ornaments have been quickly replaced.
Local divers say they have known about the collection for years. "It's a bit of a secret society among divers which no-one is meant to know about," said Paul Renucci, an experienced diver from Carlisle. "But now the secret has been revealed. "Divers from all over the country have been coming to Wastwater for years to visit the garden and have tried to keep it quiet. "I've seen around 40 gnomes down there but there must be more. They are all over Wastwater."
The police's North West Regional Underwater Search Unit removed the gnomes, after they were blamed for attracting divers to the murky depths of the lake. But so far they have failed to stop divers adding to the gnome collection.
One gnome is sitting on a wooden aeroplane while another is cemented onto a brick. Another has a lawnmower and one has been affectionately named Gordon. Plans are also afoot to create a similar gnome garden in Ullswater and divers have been busy creating signposts saying "gnome garden, this way".
The gnomes can be found near an area known as the Pinnacles, where there are also commemorative plaques dedicated to divers who have lost their lives in the lake. There's even a rope leading directly to the garden and precise directions to it can be found on the internet. PC Steve Carruthers, who has been a member of the police dive team for 14 years and supervised the underwater police investigation in Coniston after the discovery of Carol Park's body, said: "It was a big attraction. "People were diving from all over the country to see it. Tragically, we had three fatalities in quick succession so it had to be removed."
Rob Watkins, who is chairman of West Cumbria Sub Aqua Club, visited the garden around a year ago. He said: "There is a temptation for divers to exceed their depth so they do need to be careful. "The gnome garden was created because there is very little to see in the lakes. "It gives divers something to visit. "Wastwater was probably chosen because it has the clearest water. "When people see the gnomes they think they are hallucinating," he added. Other lakes also have unusual exhibits under the surface. At the bottom of Coniston Water, a lake famous for hiding Donald Campbell's Bluebird for many years as well as the body of murder victim Carol Park, divers have managed to create a bathroom complete with toilet and bath tub. And if you ever happen to be swimming along the bottom of one of the country's lakes, don't be surprised to find a pair of rubber gloves with concrete sticking out from the silt.
Published in News & Star, February 12th 2005 by Stephen Meredith