The 6-foot-tall Playmobil pirate on Mount Row Road has become a local landmark.

So, when it briefly disappeared from its usual spot on Saturday (9 September), islanders took to social media to express their concerns.

The family said that someone had taken the pirate - upsetting Mason and Alara Eggimann, the 6-year-old owners.

Grandma Susan Bradbury says it has since been returned to its front garden spot, but the incident has made her rethink security:

"We are definitely going to have CCTV installed now. Not in a million years would we have ever thought that would be necessary in Guernsey.

The island is changing slowly, but I'm afraid it is a sign of the times all over the world.

It's very sad. I still think this is still a wonderful place to live, but we need to be more careful than we have in the past."

She added that she was amused that so many islanders noticed and cared:

"He's been with us for over a year and he's become quite a public figure.

We've had messages from parents who say that their children love walking past here so that can see the pirate.

And a message from a bus driver saying that he missed the pirate cause when he drove passed he thought it was a passenger waiting."

The statue's head was damaged during the incident.

Six-year-old twins Mason and Alara Eggimann reunited with their pirate.