If you suffer from gnomophobia (the fear of gnomes, obviously) we advise you look away now – perhaps you should go and read this story about the man who was evicted from his home by his own cat, because this bit of extraordinary news is probably not for you.

A woman awoke this week to find an army of gnomes set out in and orderly fashion in her front garden – one hundred and seven of the scary little fellas, to be precise. How they got there remains a mystery but needless to say the homeowner was in a state of shock when confronted with the 30 rows of gnomes lined up in front of her three abreast down the garden path.

Marcela Telehanicova, who lives in her home in Devon, UK with her son, took to Facebook to ask: “Ok, who the f*** has put 100 gnomes outside my front door?!?!”

However, her anger quickly subsided when she realised it was nothing more than a harmless lampoon… albeit a really, really strange one.

The 30-year-old later told her local newspaper, the Plymouth Herald: “I was in hysterics, I found it really funny.

“It’s the best, most bizarre thing that has ever happened to me. I don’t know who did it but I would love to know, I would love to shake their hand and say ‘Well done, you made me laugh’.”

Sure, it’s all fun and games now Marcela, but lest we forget that as well your expletive social media post, you did also call the police immediately after it happened. And someone think of the poor gnomes, dragged from their normal resting spots and forced to attend a mass meeting in the middle of the night on a stranger’s lawn – gnomenapping is no laughing matter folks!

Police officers say that no gnomes were stolen from any local garden centres, meaning they were either taken from people’s homes in the area or, perhaps most disturbingly, the unknown mastermind behind the prank has shelled out their own hard earned cash on the garden accessories just for the love of good old-fashioned practical jokes.