Stolen garden gnomes baffle Mounties

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EDMONTON, Alberta, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A collection of more than 25 ornamental garden gnomes dumped on an Alberta family's driveway has the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigating.

The force's detachment in Leduc, 30 miles south of Edmonton, appealed for the media's help in getting the ceramic elves and other characters back to their owners and to identifying who left them on the driveway, the Edmonton Sun reported.

A woman called police when she found the little statues and solar lights on her driveway around 1:30 a.m. Aug. 24.

Constable Jodi Heidinger said the force has been able to return just five gnomes. She said the RCMP wouldn't issue photos or descriptions of the haul to prevent opportunistic people from claiming items that weren't really theirs.

Heidinger said the city has an annual rash of ornamental thefts in the spring and summer, "but it's unusual to have that number on one property at one time," the Sun said.