Stolen 8ft Gary the Gorilla statue returned to owner cut in half

The fibreglass figure disappeared from a garden centre last March, but has now been found 75 miles away.

A giant gorilla statue stolen from a garden centre is back home – but is half what it used to be.

Gary the Gorilla was taken from Reynard Nursery in Carluke, South Lanarkshire, in March last year.

Owner Andrew Scott had given up hope of finding him until a surprise contact from workers at road operating firm Bear Scotland, who found the 8ft statue hidden in bushes in a layby on the A92 near Dundee, some 75 miles from the garden centre.

But a further surprise was in store – Gary had been cut in half and his front half is still missing.

Mr Scott said on Tuesday: “I was ecstatic to see the picture from the Bear Scotland van because he looked intact, it was only when I got him back I realised he’s not intact, he’s missing his whole front.

It's good to have him back, but he's only half back

Andrew Scott

“It’s not the normal way of being sawn in half – more a James Bond way of being sawn in half. I think the reason for that was to get him inside a normal door.

“It’s good to have him back, but he’s only half back.

“With the additional publicity it might help get the other half back. I’ve been out and bought some Gorilla Glue in case it turns up.

“He’s back at the garden centre now, in the original position where he was.

“The plan is to fit him to the wall with a sign above him saying ‘Gary’s back’. It’s a bit tongue in cheek.”

Andy Moir, one of the Bear Scotland team who found the statue on Friday, said: “We were out on our usual morning route inspection when we spotted something lurking in the bushes at the back of a layby.

“When we pulled in to check it out, we were pretty shocked to see a gorilla’s bum staring us in the face.

“After we composed ourselves we managed to catch the escapee in the van and take it back to the depot, where we set about trying to figure out where it came from.

“A little digging online found some articles about a gorilla stolen from Carluke garden centre last year and we were able to reunite what we found of Gary with them.”

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