"So I cut one hedge out and put in this brickwork and set the gnome right there," said Frank Rossini, the theft victim.
The gnomes that meant so much to Frank and Janet Rossini went missing on November 1 and one of them held a small potted plant.
"And then we looked over there and we said, 'The other one is gone too,'" said Frank. "And I said, 'How could it be gone?' You just watered it yesterday."
The couple knows that stealing garden gnomes is a common prank and they might not have cared as much, if the gnomes hadn't been made by their daughter, Carolyn Duff, who died two years ago.
"She was hit head on by a drunk driver on her motorcycle," said Frank.
Duff left behind a husband, three kids and to her father the ceramic gnomes that she made for him as a Christmas present when she was only 8 years old.
"They were like two peas in a pod, and Carolyn used to say, 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' and she would laugh. We would laugh," said Janet.
The gnomes have so much sentimental value that Frank put up a sign asking the thieves to return them.
"I would like to believe there's still compassion in people that would go by and see that sign and say, 'Maybe we should return them,'" said Frank.
And maybe the Rossinis will wake up on Christmas morning and find the gnomes that mean so much to them.
