After being subjected to quite an eventful Friday, when tonnes of fruit rolled down their neighbourhood's streets, Swansea residents are using the web to make up for their losses.

There was no police investigation needed when Mrs Davies reported vandalism of her front property one sunny winter morning in North Swansea.
 
It was PC Michael Ellis who received a call from a frightened Mrs Davies. Not only was her front garden strewn with seven different varieties of fruit but her beloved gnome “Nigel” lay wounded, beaten by a bevy of fresh fruits.
 
PC Ellis was quick to allay her fears that it wasn’t youths who had damaged her property but a TV production crew on location filming a commercial for a well-known soft-drink manufacturer. Not that this was any comfort for a distressed Mrs Davies. “Nigel belonged to my grandfather so he’s an antique, but more importantly, a member of our family”, said Mrs Davies. “It’s so sad when memories are destroyed. He didn’t survive the Second World War to get banged up by a bit of fruit”, bemoaned the Swansea Resident’s Association member.

Nigel sat oblivious to the carnage around him until a grapefruit struck him on the head and toppled him from his raised plinth. “He was always on show. The local kids loved him and frequently asked if they could play in the garden with him”, said a distraught Mrs Davies. “Such a shame when the joy is taken out of so many lives by something which could have so easily been avoided”.

“Such a shame when the joy is taken out of so many lives by something which could have so easily been avoided”

Mrs Davies’ gnome Nigel wasn’t the only thing smashed in the fruit bombardment. No less than three residents had their windows smashed and a further two complained of dented car bonnets and broken windscreen wipers.
 
With the TV shoot complete, the production crew left the area in the early hours of the next day. Today the clean-up operation starts in earnest as residents pray that the pithy remnants don’t attract wild animals and swarms of fruit flies.
 
However, one lucky resident wasn’t complaining. Maud Williams benefited greatly from the visitors fruit-fest. “I made twenty jars of delicious marmalade for the Salvation Army Sunday market – all for free!”, exclaimed the entrepreneurial pensioner.

Mrs Davies has put the remnants of "Nigel" the gnome for sale on internet auction site ebay, hoping that the interesting story behind how he got broken will make up for the loss of his value as an antique.

Some residents have also taken the matter in their hands and have set up their own website with complaints, accounts and even a message board, all of it dealing with the aftermath of the TV commercial's shooting.