Police order cover up of naked gnome

Police ordered a naked, large-breasted, festive garden gnome to cover up after a motorist complained it was indecent, it emerged today.

The well-endowed, three-foot-tall gnome was sitting in the driver’s seat of a stationary van in a lay-by on the A37 in Dorchester, Dorset.

A naked male gnome was sat in the passenger seat and a model cow stood on the van’s roof as a way of attracting business to a nearby furniture shop.

Two policemen visited David Lindley, who runs Manor Wood Furniture on Wardon Hill at Evershot, yesterday, after an outraged motorist said his naked female gnome was offensive to her children.

The officers told Mr Lindley to cover up the resin gnomes and he obliged by using his girlfriend’s Ann Summers “Mummy Christmas” outfit.

Mr Lindley, 42, said: “We have had to cover up the lady gnome because she’s got great big bosoms. We’ve put her in a Ann Summers Mummy Christmas outfit to cover her modesty.”

He added: “It’s just a bit of fun to attract people to the shop. The male gnome has been in the van for about a month but then he got lonely so I put his girlfriend in there.”

A Dorset Police spokesman said: “Dorset Police acted after receiving a complaint from a mother who said that her children had been upset.

“Using their discretion a police officer spoke to the owner who agreed a suitable course of action in dressing the gnomes more appropriately on the grounds of decency.”