Gnomes nicked

by Carly Merrett

April 2, 2008

THREE men were arrested in Langford late on Easter Monday after police found 33 ceramic and clay ornaments weighing down the rear end of a Holden Commodore.

Police found $1500 worth of ornaments, ranging from snails to gnomes and elephants weighing between two and 25 kilograms each. They were later discovered to be stolen from the nearby Soils aint Soils outlet.

Canning Vale Soils aint Soils Manager Dax, who did not want his surname revealed, said he’d never seen so much of something so strange stolen and thought the garden ornaments were a “funny” thing to steal.

“They were just your standard garden ornaments,” he chuckled.

Dax also contended the considerable amount of stolen goods could be easily resold, and doubted the robbery was a prank.

Police were alerted to the ceramic stash in the Commodore’s boot when they saw the rear of the car scraping on the road.

Senior Constable David Vincent arrested the three men, and conducted an interview at Canning Vale police station.

“It was fairly unusual, “Snr Constable Vincent said, “but we do come across some unusual stuff in this business.”