Woman Told To Pay $1 Million If She Wants Her Lawn Jockey Back

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PORT CHARLOTTE -- Carol Roberts just wants her lawn jockey returned in one piece.

Someone stole the 65-pound lawn jockey from the front yard of her Conway Boulevard home Sunday night.

"Someone gave him to us as a housewarming gift when we moved here 12 years ago," Roberts said Wednesday.

The perpetrator then left a ransom note that read, "If you ever want to see your gnome again, leave $1,000,000 by the bridge, Haw, Haw!"

"It was a well-thought-out prank," Roberts said. "It was funny to them, but they don't realize that these things mean something to those they do this to."

Roberts called the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office to report the theft, but said she won't press charges if the jockey is returned.

"I don't care where they put him," she said. "Just put him somewhere on the lawn."

Since the theft was first reported in the Sun on Monday, several television news stations have reported the incident as a light, funny story or a "soft fluff piece," as Roberts described them.

"But there is a serious side to this," she said. "My neighbor was so nervous thinking someone was about to steal her things she couldn't even sleep the next night."

Charlotte County Sheriff's Office public information officer Bob Carpenter said he expects more pranks involving lawn ornaments to be reported as Christmas approaches.

"As soon as school is out, you will have an increase in reports of people stealing or slashing Christmas decorations," he said. "We are already getting them."

Carpenter also warned would-be pranksters that a joke today could affect their futures.

"Depending on how much the things are worth, they could face felony charges," he said.

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featuring their ornament in front of well-known monuments and stuff