Thieves leave bizarre note after stealing girl's garden gnome as CCTV catches them in act
A Mebourne family have been left confused after their daughter's garden gnome was stolen from their front yard and replaced with a letter saying his "true home was calling him back."
Wendy Wilberger was alerted to the intruders at her Keilor Park home just after midnight on Tuesday after the two women started "dancing and rolling" on the front lawn, triggering the CCTV security system.
The footage shows the intruders then running toward the home, snatching the 20-year-old gnome and leaving behind the letter addressed to "mum and dad".
"It looked like they had a weapon, but it was the envelope," Ms Wilberger told 7News Online.
The handwritten letter was signed from "Gnome" with a family picture of two stick figures and a house at the bottom.
"To Mum and Dad, I'm sorry to do this to you so suddenly, but I'm leaving," the letter read.
"My true home is calling me back and I miss my real family.
Moment trio knocks out Cairns cop is streamed on Facebook Live
Woman throws coins into plane engine for good luck, delays flight for hours
"I'm going back to where I belong, but I'll cherish all our memories together. Please visit me soon."
Ms Wilberger said the gnome had been sitting outside the Keilor Park house for more than 20 years and her three-year-old daughter Olivia had only just painted it two weeks ago.
But Ms Wilberger was perplexed by the end of the note asking them to "come visit soon" and decided to go for a stroll to the neighbourhood's nearby gnome village.
The stolen gnome happened to be sitting among the hundreds of others in the park.
The village is widely known among residents in Melbourne's north-west after a family put their gnomes in the garden and locals kept adding to it.
Ms Wilberger said she let police know about the incident, but has not filed a report as the garden item has since shown up.
She also said she would not tell her young daughter of the theft.
"Luckily today she had kinder and didn’t see the gnome missing in the morning," Ms Wilberger said.
