MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (Associated Press) — Allen Snyder’s garden gnome is apparently out of jail and now traveling the country. The 14-inch tall red-and-white statue disappeared from Snyder’s Morgantown yard in the spring, and Snyder has since received three letters claiming to have been written by “Gnomey.”
The latest letter, which Snyder received this week, included photos of the gnome in the company of Steelers fans attending Pittsburgh’s football home opener.
“You never took me to any games,” the note said. The letter ended: “Have to go now. Boarding a plane. Now, finally, broadening my travels.”
An earlier letter included a request for bail money and included what appeared to be booking photos of Gnomey and another of the gnome in the back seat of a police car.
Snyder has no idea who’s pulling this prank but said his short list of suspects includes several gag-loving friends.
The plight of his gnome has gotten a lot of attention. Snyder says people are always asking if he’s heard from Gnomey.
“I never thought it would go this far,” he said.
The story has even caught the attention of officials at Travelocity, which uses a roaming gnome in the online travel agency’s advertising.
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“While we know that your dear friend, Gnomey, can never be replaced, we’re sending the enclosed Roaming Gnome to keep you company in his absence,” wrote Michelle Peluso, president and chief executive officer of Travelocity, based in Southlake, Texas. “Hopefully your friend will find his way out of trouble and back to your front yard soon, although we can’t help but admire his sense of adventure and love of travel.”
This is just funny. It’s bad enough the “gnomey” asking for bail, with pictures in a police car, but traveling? It’s no wonder that Travelocity loves it… I wonder why he hasn’t just gone to his friends and said hey… are you doing this? Perhaps he likeds the humor/publicity also.
Tags: Interesting, News, Weird
This is great. I and a conspirator are in the middle of a similar “abduction” for about 3 weeks now. We have kidnapped a stuffed pig from a local hospital registration office. As we were reading the paper we say this article and changed our game plan. We were holding it ransom for 2 boxes of Nerds candies, but thought it would be great to send “petunia” the pig on similar adventures. As I type the pig is getting packed for a trip to Bahgdad. And as in the last letter left to the owner of the pig, who knows maybe Petunia and Gnomey have become friends and will meet somewhere in the world.
ROFL… taking a pig into Muslim country. nice.
Well do me a favor and post a picture once you get one of Petunia in it’s travels. Good luck.
Well good news. Petunia has finished her tour of duty and is home safe and sound. I just got her back so I will hopefully get the pictures developed tomorrow. I will then post them as soon as I can.
Looking forward to them… Glad to hear it survived unscathed in Iraq.
Ugh! It won’t let me post pictures. Sorry it took so long to reply but I have been busy.
hmm
ok, here are a few ways to post pictures. If you need a picture host you can use photobucket or imageshack… or hit me with an email, and I’ll set you up with hosting.
then to post images you use <img xsrc=”http://www.litwc.com/link%20to%20image” />
can i send you the pic and have you post it? if so what is your email address?
They’re posted here:
http://www.litwc.com/contact/
Or click my name.
Ok I sent it to what I believe was your email address
That was the correct address.
And here are the 2 pictures.
[...] Well in that vein a reader abducted a stuffed pig, Petunia, and sent it to Iraq. This is great. I and a conspirator are in the middle of a similar “abduction” for about 3 weeks now. We have kidnapped a stuffed pig from a local hospital registration office. As we were reading the paper we say this article and changed our game plan. We were holding it ransom for 2 boxes of Nerds candies, but thought it would be great to send “petunia” the pig on similar adventures. As I type the pig is getting packed for a trip to Bahgdad. And as in the last letter left to the owner of the pig, who knows maybe Petunia and Gnomey have become friends and will meet somewhere in the world. [...]
thank you
Update on Petunia. She has become quite the traveler. She just got back from visiting NYC and will be flying to Jamaica tomorrow. Hopefully pictures will follow.
Great post! I’ll probably blog something similar later. The Roaming Gnome