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The Guardian - UK

National

Mark Brown North of England correspondent

THE TRUTH ABOUT: Phantom gnome snatcher of formby admits prank almost 50 years on - The Untold Story

A garden gnome standing on some grass — The disappearance of the garden gnomes – not pictured – caused consternation in the Merseyside town in 1977. Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

The closest that residents in the sleepy seaside town of Formby got to violent crime in 1977 was, the BBC solemnly reported, by watching Kojak.

So the mysterious disappearance of garden ornaments, replaced by sinister ransom notes, was big news. It led to a media circus as journalists were dispatched to investigate the “phantom gnome snatcher of Formby”.

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