He is gnome more.
“Jerome the Gnome,” the humongous red-capped reality-TV-star-turned-Carroll Gardens-mascot died last month of a severed head. He was one year old.
The 20-foot lawn ornament — who was featured on the A&E show “Shipping Wars” and a Wendy’s hamburger commercial before finding a home at Bond and President streets — was dismembered by his bar-owning creators, sources say.
Owners of Lavender Lake, who built the statue for the show, took apart his chubby body — then stuffed his head in a warehouse, say staffers at the watering hole.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” said general manager Conrad Oliver. “But the gnome is dead.”
The big fat dwarf, who seemed to be perpetually whistling, became a neighborhood icon when he started looming over the street outside the design studio John Creech D & P — and served as a community conversation-starter for months.
Owners then transported him to the bar’s outdoor patio around the corner, pleasing craft beer guzzlers who looked decidedly more attractive standing next to him.
But his creators have since come to realize the Jerome no longer fits the bar’s minimalist aesthetic, so they killed him, Oliver said.
The gnome creeped out some neighbors, who experienced abject horror when they crossed his path.
“It’s terrifying — the first time I saw him was at night,” said neighbor Ben Aufill, who runs the blog Gowanus Your Face Off.
Aufill isn’t the only one who felt an unexplainable eeriness near the gnome — a YouTube video shows a young girl burst into tears because of the statue.
“I’m scared!” she says between sobs. “I’m scared of that gnome.”
That might simply be because gnomes are pure evil, said gnome expert Chuck Sambuchino, who claims the creatures are on-par with clowns when it comes to the freaky factor.
“They’re scary and tacky — and they look like they’re carrying a concealed weapon,” said Sambuchino, author of “How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack.”
Of course, not everybody is relieved to see poor Jerome’s head banished to a cold lonesome warehouse.
“He was just a happy jolly dude,” Oliver said. “I miss him.”
Reach reporter Natalie O'Neill at noneill@cnglocal.com or by calling her at (718) 260-4505.
