Posted on 01/05/2017 8:34:42 PM PST by nickcarraway
Video shows one rodent waiting for coast to be all clear before pouncing on candy and scurrying away.
A group of squirrels is driving the owners of one Toronto convenience store nuts, after the rodents have been caught on video stealing chocolate bars from their east-end shop.
“I always see them sneaking outside the door, looking in my store, and even right at me!” said Paul Kim, owner of Luke’s Grocery near Gerrard St. E. and Logan Ave.
“They come in and take Crunchies, Crispy Crunch, Wonderbar . . . ”
And those who are really bold “try to take Mr. Big.”
He’s seen pesky thieves slink in every fall for the past nine years — since he’s owned the store — but 2016 showed a spike in the rodent robberies with one to two bandits visiting the Kim family daily.
“I think we’ve lost up to . . . 48-ish bars this fall season,” Kim’s daughter Cindy said. “That’s an extremely rough estimate, though, because we have no way of knowing when we’ve been robbed — they’re very sneaky.”
A Youtube video shows a squirrel caught red-handed stealing a chocolate bar from a east-end Toronto convenience store. A Youtube video shows a squirrel caught red-handed stealing a chocolate bar from a east-end Toronto convenience store. (YOUTUBE) With a sharp increase in chocolate robberies, Cindy set up a Reddit thread called “how to stop squirrels from stealing chocolate bars,” in hopes that the Internet could provide answers to stop the nutty activity.
She also used surveillance video from the store to catch the robbers in the act, which she later posted to Youtube.
“My wife and I don’t know how to upload these videos — but Cindy thought it would be funny to share online,” Paul Kim said.
Videos show the furry bandits — a light grey-brown one and a black one — inching tentatively into the store, grabbing a Kinder Bueno ($2) on one occasion, and a Crunchie bar ($1.80) the next time.
“We find them very, very cute . . . however, these squirrels have stolen considerably from us this fall . . . so . . . we’d like that to stop,” Cindy said.
The family has tried closing the door to prevent the thefts, but say that there are occasions while cleaning or re-stocking that the door needs to be left open for half an hour to an hour.
“(It’s) then, when the door is open and we’re not around for a moment, they sneak in. They’ve yet to fail,” Cindy said.
Customers and passersby have also tried chasing down the bandit, but when it resorts to climbing up a tree, “it’s game over,” she said.
How to stop squirrels from stealing chocolate bars? (Reddit)
Hahahahaha....I saw the title first, and thought “This has to be a nickcarraway thread!”
He can borrow my dog. I guarantee he won’t lose any more.
Lol.
Squirrels laugh at dogs.
They could come to my house. I’d be happy to feed them chocolate bars ... and walnuts, they usually like that too.
That was hilarious!
Now, I know squirrels are rodents. I know they can be destructive. I know they can be a pain in the butt.
But I just cannot help but admire them. There is something about them, they have...personality. They are adventurous. They have flair.
They can’t cross a road if their lives depended on it, but they are all those things.
I have always thought that when God made squirrels, he assigned the programming of the road-crossing function to a somewhat fallen angel. I think God wanted to give that angel a chance to do something right, but...it just didn’t work out.
What I found really funny was, of all the things it could steal, it knew exactly where the thing with the nuts was, and before it screwed out the door, it paused and repositioned it so it wouldn’t get knocked out of his mouth easily.
I do believe it’s time to place the candy up higher away from the floor. They should also be under plexiglass, the way Walgreen’s does it. The squirrels learn very quickly and teach each other where to find the best easy-chocolate.
The store owner needs to do something now before the animals become more aggressive. They may be climbing up a customer’s leg next week, hoping to snatch the candy out of somebody’s hand. That’s Stage 3.
I wonder what chocolate fed squirrel tastes like.
“But I just cannot help but admire them. There is something about them, they have...personality.”
I agree. The owner needs to view this as a positive thing - use the footage from the film to turn this into advertising,
the candy’s so good that even the critters can’t stay away!
I think they let the squirrels steal the candy deliberately...as you said, they could stop it if they really wanted to.
They are probably far better known because of the squirrel thieves!
"Hand over Mr. Big and nobody gets hurt."
And people said I was mad training these squirrels. Now who’s mad??
They say chocolate can make dogs very ill, even kill them. I wonder if it's any different with squirrels.
I love squirrels!
They can make fun pets if raised from babies.
They are as domestic as cats
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