Festive pranksters have struck again in a village to turn a statue of its most famous son into a pink-haired TROLL.<br /><br />The stone statue of Lord John Scott, who died in 1860, is a regular Christmas target for jokers in Dunchurch, Warks. <br /><br />In the past it has been turned into Harry Potter, Shrek, Peppa Pig, Homer Simpson, and The Grinch in a tradition dating back to the 1970s. <br /><br />This year jokers turned the statue into Queen Poppy from the movie Trolls Band Together.<br /><br />Mystery surrounds the identity of the pranksters who dress up the statue in the dead of night every December.<br /><br />Villager David Armstrong, 60, said: “I’ve lived here all my life and no one knows who the statue jokers are. It’s been going on for years.<br /><br />“I think it started as a drunken prank and then grew from there. <br /><br />“It’s become an institution now and we all wait every year for who the statue will be. It’s just a bit of fun.”<br /><br />Yousaf Hussain, director at Carter & King estate agents, said: "It’s part of Christmas in Dunchurch, everyone waits to see what it’s going to be.<br /><br />"It feels like Christmas has arrived when it’s unveiled - it’s usually about a week before Christmas when it goes up."<br /><br />The statue commemorates the Lord, who was a Grenadier Guards officer, a Scottish MP and a landlord, who died aged 51 in 1860.
