Somebody's taken our Elvis

By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

ELVIS has left the garden. The King has been kidnapped!

Whichever way you choose to phrase it, there are plenty of suspicious minds in Scholes, Holmfirth, following the audacious theft of a beloved Elvis statue from its owner's garden.

The two-and-a-half foot-high figurine of the King in his 50s heyday was pinched from Glenn Swindell's house overnight on Wednesday. Glenn, himself an Elvis impersonator (pictured), is now desperate to get the good luck charm back. He bought the weighty fibreglass Elvis for £55 in 2001.

The statue has been a fixture in his garden overlooking Scholes Cricket Club ever since. Pranksters have targeted the statue before, but the mini-Elvis has never gone missing for this length of time. "He has been taken by drunk cricketers as a joke, but they have put him back outside my house," said 30-year-old Glenn.

"It's quite distinctive. You couldn't really pinch it and put it in your own garden." Married to Sally, 28, the couple have a daughter, Faith, who is six months old. She is missing the little statue most of all.

"Faith's absolutely devastated," said her dad. Anyone with information leading to the return of the statue will be rewarded by an Elvis performance from Glenn. "I realise it's not the crime of the century but someone has kidnapped the King. They are disrespecting his memory."

(Elvis Odd Spot, Source: IC Network, 4 August 2004)