Usually, gnome news is good news, but it's terrible for Darlene Fraga -- and her Virgin Mary statue.
Vandals snuck on to Fraga's property in Windsor Locks, Conn., a few weeks ago and hacked off the head of the Virgin Mary statue in her yard. A week later, the head was replaced with a garden gnome.
"It just hurts me so bad I want to cry," Fraga told NECN.com. "They took a sledgehammer or something and decapitated her and took her crown of roses and her rosary beads."
Police investigating the matter don't have a suspect, but believe kids may be responsible since there have been other reports of random vandalism in the area.
Fraga has a different theory: The head hacking was a hate crime against her.
"That's up in my yard. That's not near the corner. That's right on my yard," Fraga told NBC2.com
Fraga’s friend, Roger Cygan of Somers, is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, according to Associated Press.
As hard as it's been for Fraga, she has yet to move the Virgin Mary statue or the gnome.
"I think after I get over the initial shock, I'm going to take the whole thing down," Fraga told NECN.com.
Regardless of whether there are any arrests, Fraga believes the culprit will have to answer to a higher authority.
"Whoever did it, God knows and you know," she told the station. "It's riding on your shoulder now."
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