A MUM’S Elf on the Shelf prank spectacularly backfired after she permanently ruined her fireplace with a message written by her mischievous Santa’s helper.
Beth Heaton thought she had created an “easy and simple” prank on Wednesday when she decided to squirt tomato ketchup across the bottom of her fireplace saying “I’m back”.
The 23-year-old from Rainford, Merseyside had left the message alongside “Buddy the Elf” who had caused havoc at her house last year.
After revealing the message to her daughter the next day, Beth quickly realised the message was there to stay after every clean-up attempt failed to wipe off the stain.
The acid in the sauce stained Beth’s hearth after laying for so long – leaving the disturbing message for everyone to see.
Images show the initial set up alongside a photograph of what was left when she cleared up.
Beth posted about her festive blunder on Facebook on Friday whilst asking for tips on how to get her fireplace back to its usual state.
She wrote: “Someone help. I really don’t know what to do. Our Elf on the shelf Buddy had wrote [sic] in giant tomato sauce letters on my fire place ‘I’m back’.
“Daughter woke up in the morning, made up, she went to school so I cleaned it up – job’s a gooden right?
“Well I went back to the fireplace a while later and was like, I don’t know what’s happened, has it stained or bleached the marble?
“It’s not like it’s dirty anyway as I clean it quite often but I just don’t get what’s happened? Is there a way to fix this without having to coat my full fireplace in tomato sauce to even it out?
“Buddy you little b*****d.”
The post has gained over 4,000 likes and thousands of comments from amused social media users.
One said: “Oh no, a permanent funny reminder though.
“My mum used to pour surgical spirit on stained wood and set it alight to get stains off and it worked every time, don’t know if it would work on marble though.”
Another wrote: “Aw, just think of the memories for years to come, every time you look at your fireplace.”
A third commented: “Send the invoice to Santa for a new fireplace for Christmas.”
A fourth added: “Claim on the insurance and tell them those little red and white twunts did it.”
Beth also shared hilarious secret footage of the elf sneaking around the house while Marley slept.
Speaking today, Beth said: “Each year on the last night of November, Buddy the Elf on the shelf comes to our house ‘from the North Pole’ and announces his arrival.
“This year I thought we’d start off simple and easy, so he came with a letter explaining he would be doubly cheeky as there are now two children and wrote on the fireplace ‘I’m Back’.
“My eldest daughter woke up in the morning so excited, she went off to school and I came home to clean the sauce off and thought nothing of it.
“Later in the day, I was playing with the baby in the living room and I could just see these giant letters in the corner of my eye, and there it was staring me in the face: ‘I’m back’.
“It turns out, I’ve acid etched the fireplace with tomato sauce.
“The only way to fix it, I feel, is to get Buddy the elf to coat the full fireplace in tomato sauce so that it matches!”
