GNOMES receive more derision than respect but I liked his happy face and so did my two young sons.

Recently a gang of eight youths thought it would be cool to steal Oswald the gnome. I was out of my chair like a hound after a hare and was gaining when one of the thieves hurled Oswald into the middle of the road.

A senseless act of destruction.

They were getting away and I was left to pick up the pathetic pieces. I was later told by neighbours that they looked like a bunch of local schoolboys who had probably had a can too many. I don't want anyone to start their working life with theft and criminal damage on their record, I just want them to apologise and pay up.

There will be no questions asked but I advise the perpetrator to find a girlfriend instead of pinching gnomes in a sad Freudian attempt to secure a father figure.

Brian McCusker,St Oswald's Road,Fulford, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.