Edinburgh gnome thieves have demanded cheesecake from a café in return for the safe arrival of one of their beloved garden ornaments.
Butternut Squash café in Portobello had their gnome stolen from outside their premises on Wednesday.
The following morning staff at the capital business were bewildered to find a ransom note stuck to the café front door asking for cheesecake in return.
The note, with an image of a random gnome attached, read: “We have your gnome, if you want to see him again leave two cheesecakes when you close the café.
“We will be watching.”
Café owner, Jen Reid ended up leaving out shortbread for the gnome-nappers as a bargaining tool but her efforts were in vain.
This morning an angry note was left on the door, reading: ““Shortbread!!! We asked for cheesecake!!!
“You have 24 hours or your gnome gets dusty binned!”
So far, the unnamed gnome is still in the hands of the thieves and has not been returned.
On Monday Jen launched a competition to find her gnome a name after he kept going missing and returning days later.
She wrote on the café Facebook page: “This wee guy seems to keep going on adventures.
“He wasn’t here yesterday morning but came back today…
“We think he needs a name, prize for the winner.”
A post yesterday, captioned “the tale continues…”, included a snap of the typed ransom note.
Locals were left in stitches over the mischievous exchange.
Justine Stansfield said: “Two cheesecakes is quite a ransom!”
Grainne Lambert said: “Brilliant story, sad the gnome is being held ransom but I bet he is in on it too hmm.”
While Anne Carlisle added: “Loving this saga!”
The cheesecake the robbers are after is retailed at £4.95 at the café.
Speaking today, the 44-year-old Scot baker said: “So a couple of times it disappeared then it would reappear a couple days after.
“On Sunday it was away when we opened up. On Monday it was on top of a bin outside.
“Last night we left shortbread…no way they are getting our good cheesecake.”
After receiving the second ransom note this morning Jen added: “I know they ain’t getting cheesecake I’ve been advised not to negotiate with gnomenappers.”
