How a frog in mere is back with its owner
Howdy the frog was found by a magnet fisher
When a ceramic frog was stolen from Ian Cameron’s garden in Scarborough in 2011, along with a stone owl, he and his wife Anne were upset, having made the frog themselves.
However, as time moved on the theft was gradually forgotten, and in 2017 the couple moved back to Knaresborough.
They have made a lot of ceramics over the years and stamp them all with the serial number annenian – for Anne and Ian.
The frog, nicknamed Howdy, was annenian 22/1998, denoting it was their 22nd piece made in 1998.
Ian said: “We made lots of things and used to put them in the garden and every morning you’d go out and see him waving, which is how he got his name.
“But it had gone out of our mind. My wife would say she missed the stone owl, more so than Howdy, because we’ve got lots of ceramics.”
But in an extraordinary piece of luck, the little frog has been reunited with the couple thanks to a magnet fisherman, police and an old article from The Scarborough News.
The tale begins with Bob Tait, an upholsterer and keen magnet fisher from Scarborough, who was fishing in Throxenby Mere with a grappling hook earlier this year, when he pulled up Howdy.
He said: “It came up backside up with not a scratch on it.”
After spotting the serial number on the base of the ceramic, Bob searched the unusual inscription on Google and found a news article from 2011 detailing the original theft which prompted him to contact the police.
“I just thought wouldn’t it be nice to try and give it back after all these years,” said Mr Tait.
“The thing about it is we’ve fished that part of the mere so many times, we must have thrown the grappling hook in 100 times and for it not to have smashed it is amazing.”
Officers tracked down Ian and Anne after their former Scarborough neighbours in Burniston Road gave the police their new address and told them where the sculpture had been after eight years.
Ian said: “I was absolutely gobsmacked.
“Everyone has gone to an awful lot of trouble.
“We have now met Mr Tait and retrieved Howdy and would like to thank him very much for taking the trouble to find out how it came to be in the mere, and also North Yorkshire Police for taking the time to find us after we had moved away.”
Mr Tait said he had almost become used to the waving frog and was sad to see it go, but glad to have been able to reunite it with its owners.
In Knaresborough, Howdy has rejoined the Camerons’ many other ceramics.
“He’s come in for the winter as ceramics don’t fare so well in the cold, but he’ll live out on the patio the rest of the year,” said Ian.