Lasher
08-24-2002, 03:57 PM
Police cement grip on gnome case
By COURTNEY WALSH
24aug02
CONSTABLES Ross Cameron and David Griffiths thought they had cracked the day's biggest case -- 18 kidnap victims dumped on the steps of the State Library.
But when the pair arrived about 5.20am yesterday they could only laugh as they rescued from Melbourne's chill a stony-faced group of 15 garden gnomes and concrete scotty-dog, koala and cockatoo statues.
The case gave the pair plenty of ammunition for bad jokes to use on their City Patrol Group colleagues in Little Flinders St.
"We have nothing concrete apart from the gnomes," Constable Cameron said.
"We've been led up the garden path on this one."
Constable Cameron said the pair had asked their hapless victims, some dabbed with a fresh coat of blue paint, for a description of the two "hardened" young kidnappers.
"They have been questioned but they remain stone-faced," he said. "We are hopeful that, with a bit more pressure, one of them will crack."
Constable Cameron warned the offenders, who fled the scene in a small white car, about the seriousness of their crime, described by one officer as an "offence against the statute".
The gnome-napping comes two years after a team of garden ornaments turned up at a Werribee football oval.
A large fat gnome "umpire" was poised for the first bounce in the centre circle, 16 other gnomes were waiting for a kick around the ground and a duck with a broken beak was ordered to the bench with the injury.
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,4959730%5E2862,00.html
By COURTNEY WALSH
24aug02
CONSTABLES Ross Cameron and David Griffiths thought they had cracked the day's biggest case -- 18 kidnap victims dumped on the steps of the State Library.
But when the pair arrived about 5.20am yesterday they could only laugh as they rescued from Melbourne's chill a stony-faced group of 15 garden gnomes and concrete scotty-dog, koala and cockatoo statues.
The case gave the pair plenty of ammunition for bad jokes to use on their City Patrol Group colleagues in Little Flinders St.
"We have nothing concrete apart from the gnomes," Constable Cameron said.
"We've been led up the garden path on this one."
Constable Cameron said the pair had asked their hapless victims, some dabbed with a fresh coat of blue paint, for a description of the two "hardened" young kidnappers.
"They have been questioned but they remain stone-faced," he said. "We are hopeful that, with a bit more pressure, one of them will crack."
Constable Cameron warned the offenders, who fled the scene in a small white car, about the seriousness of their crime, described by one officer as an "offence against the statute".
The gnome-napping comes two years after a team of garden ornaments turned up at a Werribee football oval.
A large fat gnome "umpire" was poised for the first bounce in the centre circle, 16 other gnomes were waiting for a kick around the ground and a duck with a broken beak was ordered to the bench with the injury.
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,4959730%5E2862,00.html