King Gone! Hunt for huge £3,000 8ft ‘Gary the gorilla’ statue that was stolen from garden centre before being ‘spotted on motorway’

• Gary the Gorilla was stolen from Reynard Nursery in Lanarkshire last month
• A lookalike statue was spotted on the M25 and the M40 near Warwick last week

The hunt continues for a huge £3,000 gorilla statue that was stolen from garden centre after a lookalike was spotted on the motorway last week.

The eight-foot tall fibreglass ornament, known as Gary the Gorilla, was stolen from Reynard Nursery in Carluke, Lanarkshire last month.

Two people were caught on CCTV unbolting the statue before a van arrived just a few hours later to remove Gary from the premises.

Last week, week owner Andrew Scott was sent photos of a gorilla statue being transported on a trailer on the M25 and the M40 near Warwick. 

But police have since concluded the it was a false sighting, alleging the statue was one of Gary’s ‘brothers’.

The eight-foot tall fibreglass ornament, known as Gary the Gorilla, was stolen from Reynard Nursery in Carluke, Lanarkshire last month

Gary was stolen from outside the Reynard Nursery in the middle of the night on March 19, surveillance video revealed.

CCTV showed a car arriving at the nursery around 10.30pm before the occupants exited the vehicle and unbolting the ornament. A van returned nearly two hours later and Gary was taken off the property.

‘We saw him disappear into the darkness on that wet night and we haven’t seen him since,’ Mr Scott said.

‘It seemed to be fairly well planned from the footage we have, but unfortunately we can’t see who actually took him.’

Police launched an investigation into the statue theft, but have seemingly not found any successful leads.

Mr Scott was hopeful for a break in the case after a giant gorilla statue spotted on motorways across England last week.

Police were also able to track the gorilla’s movements using the vehicle’s registration plate.

Once officers mapped out the movements of the gorilla spotted on motorways it was determined that the ornament was not Gary.

Mr Scott said: ‘It moved from London to Whitehaven in Cumbria. And unfortunately it’s not Gary, it’s one of Gary’s brothers. So we are a bit disappointed because we were really hoping it was him.

‘Gary comes from a fairly extended family, we’ve yet to decipher how many brothers he has but we are looking into that just so we know.

Last week, week owner Andrew Scott was sent photos of a gorilla statue being transported on a trailer on the M25 and on M40 near Warwick. But police have since concluded the it was a false sighting, alleging the statue was one of Gary’s ‘brothers’

‘I’m pretty convinced we’ll get him back. It’ll take some time but we’ve not stopped looking.

‘The response from the public was huge so the minute Gary makes an appearance anywhere, I’m sure the public will help us find him and get him back to where he belongs.’

He added: ‘We ask that everyone keeps an eye open for our Gary. We believe the thieves are now sitting with an eight foot statue they can do nothing with.

‘Let this be a warning to the criminals, you can run but you can’t hide forever.’ 

The manufacturer of the figure has made several versions of the statue and it is believed the sightings were of one of them.

Gary, purchased by the garden centre for £3,000, has sat outside the garden centre for the last decade and had become a firm favourite among customers and locals.

He was used as a signpost to the garden centre and would be dressed for Christmas and other events. He wore a face mask during the pandemic.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Police Scotland on 101 quoting incident number 0588 of Monday, 20 March, 2023.

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