There's gno place like 'ome

2003-02-04 22:52

Llewellyn Prince

Cape Town - Christmas holidays are a time for families to spend together, but a Monte Vista ceramic garden gnome "eloped" with a stranger and returned with an album full of holiday snapshots.

Owner Francois Brink told this week of how the wandering gnome disappeared from her little house in their flower garden shortly before Christmas.

She and her 50cm gnome husband live in a house the Brinks built for them in a palm tree.

Brink said: "My daughter, Karla, loves the gnomes so much that she sings to them every night before going to bed. We were very upset about her disappearance and blamed the street people in the area."

However, Karla, 4, woke her parents on Sunday, saying the wayward gnome had returned.

Brink said: "We first thought it was her imagination, but couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the gnome in front of her house.

Only clue is thief's feet

"We were even more amazed when we found an album with holiday photos of her on the beach at Plettenberg Bay, at an Aventura resort and eating toasted marshmallows with a new friend.

"And, we had to stay at home," Brink says with a smile.

He says they have no idea who took the gnome on holiday, as the only visible part of the kidnapper on the photos was his feet.

The family suspects a student in the area decided to make an urban legend come true, but they have not yet been able to prove it.

Brink joked: "I am grateful that someone had enough money to take her on holiday. At the end of this year, I will definitely be waiting under that tree, so that I can go on holiday for free, too."

In the French film, Amelie from Montmatre, the heroine discovers a garden gnome in her apartment.

She gives it to a friend who takes the gnome on his world travels and sends Amelie's father pictures of the gnome in the places they visit.

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- Die Burger