Gnomes that Roam

The prank of the moment—as seen in The Full Monty and Amelie—goes like this: One of your more mobile possessions gets abducted. It’s often a garden gnome, but it could be anything. Soon photos of the missing object begin appearing in the mail, postmarked from faraway locales. Los Angeles Times writer Susan Carpenter traces the history of the “roaming gnome” and unearths some exemplary executions of the gag. Dave Stockton’s running shoe, for instance, was taken from his balcony in Chicago. Eventually, he received snapshots of the shoe in St. Petersburg, Florida; London, England; and Hollywood, California, where “Righty,” as the wayward shoe began identifying itself, was laced-up on the foot of actress Neve Campbell. 

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