TAHUNANUI GNOME MISSING FOUR DAYS — NEIGHBOURLY HAS 140 THEORIES AND ZERO GNOMES

A concrete garden gnome called Rangi has vanished from a front lawn in Tahunanui. The local Neighbourly page has responded with 140 comments, six suspects and no gnome.

Owner Deirdre Pask, 58, brought Rangi south when she and her husband sold up in Mt Eden and bought in Nelson. She said they came for the sunshine and because the Auckland place was worth more than the street it sat on. Rangi stood by the letterbox for three years. On Tuesday morning he was gone. All that remained was a pale circle in the grass and what Pask called "a real sense of betrayal".

"Someone's had him. He's not the sort to wander. He's concrete. He weighs about the same as a bag of cement because he basically is one," Pask said.

Pask started the Neighbourly thread at seven on Tuesday morning and now regrets it. So far the thread has blamed seagulls, "the Auckland crowd", a man in a Hilux, a woman in a different Hilux and the council. It has also blamed a group of Year 9s who were apparently "looking shifty near the beach". One resident, Glenys Tuohy, offered a detailed theory involving a fishing charter and a bet. Asked for evidence, she said she had lived here 40 years and left it at that. A separate commenter has posted a photo of his own gnome to confirm it is not Rangi.

A Nelson City Council spokesperson said the gnome was "not a council matter". They then noted that if Rangi had been on the berm rather than the lawn, he would have counted as "an unconsented structure on the road reserve". In that case the council "might have had a chat". Nelson police confirmed a report had been lodged and said the matter was being "kept in view". A sergeant later clarified that this meant they knew about the gnome.

On Friday afternoon a photo appeared on the same Neighbourly page. It showed a gnome matching Rangi's description sitting in the stern of a small boat off Tahunanui Beach, holding a can of something local. Pask says it's him. Glenys Tuohy says she told everyone. Neither has explained how the gnome got the beer.