Stolen elf was one of four missing, damaged figures

By Jim Maniaci
Cibola County Bureau

A decorative holiday elf, recycled into a target, sits smiling at the community shooting range area on Lobo Canyon Rd. in Grants. The figure, along with three others, was carved for display in Linda Warren's yard in Grants. Two of the figures were stolen. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

GRANTS — The photograph in Thursday's Independent of an elf shot through with dozens of bullet holes at a firing range just north of Grants turns out to be one-fourth of the story.

It seems that the elf with "Cai-Leigh" written on its hat is one of a set of four figures hand-crafted by an Arizona man over the holidays for his grandmother and placed in the family yard at 1501 Dona Ave. The home is several blocks north of Cibola General Hospital and east of Lobo Canyon Road-State Hwy. 547.

They were stolen and/or vandalized by some very inconsiderate people. The elf in the picture was set up at the local shooting range on Lobo Canyon Road some three miles or so to the north. A tennis ball and Coke can were then placed on the elf's ears as additional targets for the destructive hoodlums.

Linda Warren saw the picture and notified the Independent to explain that during the Thanksgiving holiday her son, Christopher Miles, 27, of Parker, Ariz., had come to New Mexico. While in Grants he took pieces of wood, drew the figures, painted them and cut them out as a gift for his grandmother, Clara Warner, 71.

In addition to "Cai-Leigh," Warner's great-granddaughter, he named the other elf, "Kristian," for her great-grandson. The other two figures were dogs, a dachshund and a cocker spaniel.

Warren explained that the four figures were mounted in the front yard.

"They broke off the dachshund's tail," she said, but left it in the yard. Recovering the damaged figure, she said it would be stored in the hopes the missing figures would be returned and the tail replaced.

"If they could give back the other elf, we'd ask no questions," she explained.

She said a neighbor, who had been checking the house while the family was away for only a few days, noticed they were there in the yard Saturday morning. Sometime after that, possibly as late as Sunday evening, Christmas Eve, they were gone.

To contact reporter Jim Maniaci in Grants, telephone 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775 (cellular).