A Scottish police force has posted a picture in the hope of finding the owner of an unusual “missing person” – a garden gnome.
Lochaber and Skye Police recently had people in stitches by going on the tweet about cocaine.
Now it has now scored again – this time over the lonely gnome, which is also missing his fishing rod.
“Can you identify this missing person? Recovered by Police & believed to be stolen from Portree area #FindGnomeAHome,” tweeted the force.
Folllowers joined in the fun.
“I think we know a David Bowie song about him…” said one.”He’s missing his *coughs* rod,” noted another while a follower called Lady Kismuil Brodie tweeted:”I can find him a home…. In the nearest dustbin. #Yuk #NaeAFanOGnomes.”
But another offered a clue:”Yeah he was in the pub the othwnight scrounging beer…”
The force has a reputation for amusing its followers.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Dealing drugs in our beat?
Then we're coming for you. #HappyValentinesDay – don't let a dealer ruin it.— Lochaber&SkyePolice (@LochabSkyePol) February 14, 2016
We can also reassure the community that the burny firey thing in the sky is nothing to be afraid of. Apparently it's called a sun.
— Lochaber&SkyePolice (@LochabSkyePol) February 23, 2016
Out for a beer tonight? Try not to be a drunken scrumbag by ending up in our sin bin. We don't want any rucks on our turf. #WALvSCO
— Lochaber&SkyePolice (@LochabSkyePol) February 13, 2016
The now famous previous tweet about cocaine by Sgt Bruce Crawford received nearly 4000 likes and more than 4600 re-tweets after he posted:”If you get back to your house tonight on #Skye and realise your cocaine is missing – we have it in the Police station #WeNeedAWord.”
If you get back to your house tonight on #Skye and realise your cocaine is missing – we have it in the Police station #WeNeedAWord
— Lochaber&SkyePolice (@LochabSkyePol) January 2, 2016
It was later reported that a 23-year-old woman had been arrested over the ‘unclaimed missing property’ with the hashtag “we had a word.”
And one Twitter fan on the other side of the Atlantic even asked for a picture of the tweeting bobbies – and sent his mother to go and get one!
Following recovery of cocaine on #Skye on 02/01 a female (23) from Edinburgh is to be reported to the PF #WeNeedAWord #WeHadAWord
— Lochaber&SkyePolice (@LochabSkyePol) January 15, 2016
But even then the Skye-based police team could not resist a bit more humour with the hashtag “famewentohisheid” to rib Sgt Crawford.
The division even used the nativity at Christmas to warn culprits they had “plenty of room at our inn.”
To which one follower replied “any rooms with a sea view available?”
But the force were quick to point out:”Afraid not – our accommodation doesn’t score very highly on Trip Advisor.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland has praised the Lochaber and Skye team for their humorous use of twitter.
“We encourage individual area commands to do their own thing and raise local issues in their own way. It seems to get quite a lot of feedback. It gets the message across with humour. We do give Twitter training if needed,” she said.