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Squirrels Stealing Chocolate Bars Driving Toronto Store Owner Nuts
Toronto Star ^ | Thu., Jan. 5, 2017

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: canada; candy; chocolate; lol; raiders; squirrels; thieves; treerats
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To: ETL

Lol.


81 posted on 01/06/2017 8:48:30 AM PST by deadrock (I is someone else.)
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To: ETL

He has your dentist on speed dial.


82 posted on 01/06/2017 8:49:57 AM PST by deadrock (I is someone else.)
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To: onedoug

Ping


83 posted on 01/06/2017 10:18:30 AM PST by windcliff
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


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