Garden gnome saves pensioner, retires

Woman fells burglar with garden ornament

Martin Wainwright
Friday April 15, 2005
The Guardian

A woman in her 70s was praised by neighbours yesterday for felling a suspected burglar with a garden gnome.

Jean Collop flung the missile at a man she found clinging to her roof after she was woken in the early hours by the sound of his shoes scraping the tiles.

"I grabbed the first thing I could find, which was the gnome," she said after the ordeal in Wadebridge, Cornwall. "I politely told the man not to move then threw it at him and hit him. He lay down for quite a while and didn't move."

Mrs Collop, a grandmother, ran outside in her nightdress after hearing the scraping. She saw the man inching towards one of her upstairs windows, and yelled for help after flinging the gnome, which broke on impact.
"I screamed at the top of my voice, then I went back into the kitchen and found a rolling pin in case he came down," she said. "I've got another gnome which I could have used, but I didn't want to break that as well."

Mrs Collop was described as "a very brave neighbour" by Jenna Owen who called police after being woken by the screams and the shattering gnome.

The man tried to jump down on to Ms Owen's balcony, but every time he got up he was photographed by Mrs Collop.

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "A 20-year old man was arrested and cautioned for an attempted burglary and possession of cannabis."

Mrs Collop's gnome may be repaired and donated to the Gnome Reserve and Wildflower Garden, near Bideford in Devon.