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© St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 2002
SEMINOLE -- Every so often lawn decorations go missing. They're there when the porch light is turned off, but in the dark of night, pranksters pluck them from yards, leaving their owners bewildered and sometimes upset.
And, oftentimes, the ornaments land on the yard of an unsuspecting homeowner.
A few dozen residents awoke the morning of June 28 and discovered their statues, plastic pink flamingos, and ceramic turtles and frogs were missing.
They ended up on the front lawn of David and Nancy Tomlinson, who live in a Seminole subdivision off Oakhurst Road.
"My husband saw it first," said Mrs. Tomlinson. "Then he came inside and said, "You won't believe this.' "
In their front yard were 45 ornaments, all neatly arranged. Concrete geese. Ceramic frogs. Colorful pinwheels. Pink flamingos. A statue of Jesus. Wooden birds.
No gnomes, though.
Mrs. Tomlinson called the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to report the bizarre scene.
The same day, Doug Grier's young daughter noticed something wasn't quite right about their front yard on Barbados Drive. Three plastic windmills, a flower planter in the shape of a little boy fishing, and a statue of a fox (which looks like their dog) were gone.
"Our stuff was probably only worth $40 or $50," Grier said, but he called the Sheriff's Office anyway to report the missing ornaments.
Grier said he didn't expect to recover his property, but a deputy returned his call and told him where he might find his belongings. Check out a house on Mark Drive, about a mile away, the deputy told him.
"When we pulled up, we started laughing, but then we started thinking some of these people are probably wondering where their stuff is," Grier said.
One of those people was his brother-in-law's mother, who lives on Jamaica Drive, also about a mile from Mark Drive. Grier's sister recently was sharing her brother's story about his stolen ornaments when her mother-in-law said she also was missing something.
Grier gave them directions to the Tomlinsons' house. "And sure enough, this (concrete) goose is sitting out in the front in the flower bed," Grier said.
Mrs. Tomlinson said she decided to hold on to the ornaments in the hopes that homeowners missing decorations either would hear from their neighbors about their temporary home or learn from authorities where they were.
Another homeowner called the Sheriff's Office the morning of the crime to report a missing statue: a squirrel holding a maple leaf. Authorities told her where she might be able to find it. They were right.
All last week, people trickled over to the Tomlinsons'. One person came looking for a statue of a jockey and horse. "We didn't have it," Mrs. Tomlinson said.
By Monday, most of the ornaments were back with their rightful owners. About 10 items were still in the Tomlinsons' back yard.
"I think whatever meant anything to anybody, they've come and gotten it," Mrs. Tomlinson said. She'd give the remaining ornaments to the Sheriff's Office, she said.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Marianne Pasha said the department has lots of lawn decorations that have been stolen. Every Christmas season, Santa statues and nativity figures turn up in an evidence storage room.
Pasha said anyone still missing decorations can call the Sheriff's Office at 582-6200.