No note. No ransom demand.
Who kidnapped the Smith family's Seahawks garden gnome, and why?
"My mom had given us the gnome after we got back from the Super Bowl," said Branden Smith. "Three days after we put it out on the lawn it was gone."
But Branden and his wife, Dana, are more mystified by what happened last week, six months after the gnome-napping.
"I'm really still not sure what to think of it. I'm not sure whether to be happy or a little taken aback," said Branden Smith, after the gnome showed up on the doorstep of their Tumwater home last Thursday just as mysteriously as it disappeared last March.
"It's definitely a little weird," said Dana. "They put some thought behind it, to return it by the opening home game of the regular season."
Somebody dropped it off the morning of the Seahawks game against the Green Bay Packers. It was left standing on top of a package. Inside the package the Smiths found an elaborate calendar-with photos of their gnome posed against backdrops and with strangers at locations throughout the Western U.S.
"We're talking Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Bridge," said Brandon.
"I couldn't believe somebody had taken our gnome on vacation," said Dana. "It's like every time you flipped to a new month on the calendar, oh, there's our gnome again and who are these random people that he was taking pictures with."
The Smiths don't know who is responsible. Maybe somebody in one of the photos, they wonder. They've studied the hand you can see holding the gnome in a few of the selfies that appear on the calendar. They've ruled out friends and neighbors.
"I think I'd like to know, yeah," Dana said. "But, you know, it's kind of nice having a little mystery out there too."
The gnome-napper also marked the calendar with every Seahawks game of the 2014-15 season, leading the Smiths to conclude the culprits are probably big fans.
If you visit their home you'll notice this well-traveled Seahawks gnome is no longer in the yard. Dana is afraid he'll disappear again.
"I really, really liked him when we got him and I was so sad when he left," she said. "I'm just excited and I don't want to let him go again. I don't even want him in the backyard. He gets a permanent spot inside the house."
Brendan's mom bought the couple a smaller version they now have displayed in a window. Both gnomes are protected by the Smith's two loving but quite muscular Pit Bulls.
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