Democrats spent years calling homeless encampments a "housing crisis" while the people living near them watched their neighborhoods get picked apart.
Now a Florida grandmother is missing half her garden.
Here's what happened when the law wasn't enough.
The Tricycle Thief of North Fort Myers
Shawn Haines spent 30 years building her gnome collection one piece at a time.
On May 19, a man pedaled up to her North Fort Myers yard on a children's tricycle and took 25 of them in a single trip.
Her Ring camera caught the whole thing.
Lee County Sheriff's Office detectives matched the tricycle to the footage and tracked the suspect to a homeless encampment in North Fort Myers.
His name was John Ramey.
The tricycle was parked at his campsite.
He walked detectives straight to the gnomes.
Ramey was arrested and charged with petit theft – with two or more prior convictions.
That last part matters.
This Wasn't His First Time
Petit theft with two or more prior convictions is a specific Florida charge.
It means Ramey had already been through the system – arrested, prosecuted, and released.
Then he got on a tricycle and robbed a 30-year collection from a grandmother's yard.
Governor DeSantis signed Florida's homeless encampment ban in March 2024.
It took effect October 1 of that year – making it illegal to camp on public property statewide and requiring municipalities to provide designated facilities with security and behavioral health services.
Advocacy groups called it criminalizing poverty.
The ACLU raised objections.
And Ramey was still living in an encampment in North Fort Myers in June 2026 – over a year after the law took effect – stealing from the neighbors around him.
What Actually Happened When Deputies Showed Up
The good news is the Lee County Sheriff's Office didn't treat this like a joke.
They worked a garden gnome case for two weeks like it mattered – because to Shawn Haines, it did.
Deputies returned 13 of the roughly 25 missing gnomes to her home.
"Having them come home, I just felt like a kid at Christmas," she said.
Three neighbors she'd never met donated replacement gnomes after the story aired on local news.
These aren't just lawn decorations – they're three decades of someone's life, stolen by a repeat offender who was supposed to be off the streets.
When asked why he took them, Ramey told deputies the gnomes looked like they needed to be cleaned up, fixed up, repainted – that they were "crying for help."
A man with prior theft convictions, living in an encampment that should have been cleared under Florida law, decided a grandmother's garden collection needed rescuing.
She's the one who needed rescuing.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office did their job.
The system that was supposed to keep Ramey off those streets didn't do its.
Haines said she's now planning an electric fence and football field lighting for the yard.
She shouldn't have to.
Sources:
- Sara Kitchin, "On the run gnome more: Florida man arrested after stealing lawn gnomes on tricycle, deputies say," WFLA, June 3, 2026.
- Sebastian Cuervo, "Florida man steals over a dozen garden gnomes in Lee County," WSVN 7News, June 4, 2026.
- Kyle Schmidt, "North Fort Myers woman gets some of her gnomes back as man arrested," WINK News, June 2, 2026.
- Lee County Sheriff's Office, Facebook post, June 2, 2026.
