Standing at the roadside, he came complete with a speed camera made from a plastic pop bottle and a sign saying: “Slow yew down bor - yer enterin' scarecrow country.” But instead of spreading the word about road safety and the village fete, he disappeared without so much as a dicky bird just hours after he went on show, on Saturday morning.
“We put him outside the old police house, but he'd only been out there a few hours and he was nicked. Someone said 'you should report it', so we called a few numbers and they passed us on to Wymondham and they gave us a crime number and said they'd look into it.”
It wasn't looking hopeful. With three hours' head start, the thief or thieves could have been anywhere - well, at least the other side of Heacham, allowing for the holiday traffic. There were no witnesses. Snouts weren't singing. Grasses weren't grassing. If intelligence failed to throw up any villagers with previous form for scarecrow-napping, the trail looked set to go cold.
Mrs Skillings was resigned to becoming another crime statistic. Then the phone rang with an unexpected development in the investigation. They said 'that's Hunstanton police here, we think we've got your scarecrow',” said Mrs Skillings. 'He's been sitting here down at the police station all day'.
“When I said 'where did you find him', they just said: 'It's a long story, we'll bring him back'. Apparently, a non-local police officer saw him and took him in.” Officers brought Pc Scarecrow back in a police Land Rover and he is now recovering from his ordeal, before going back on duty.
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