Security camera reveals Montreal tomato thief is postman, not squirrel

Peckish postman sorry for on-the-job plant snack This week, we covered the story of a postman caught plucking fruit from a customer’s hanging planters. This morning, he apologized publicly.

When a Montreal couple’s homegrown tomatoes started disappearing, they suspected the culprit was a squirrel. Then they watched security camera footage and caught the postman red-handed.

Paula Habib says the produce she was growing in hanging baskets outside of her home in the Town of Mount Royal started disappearing in June.

“We had a full set of tomatoes and then all of a sudden the tomatoes started going down,” Habib said. “We didn't take any ourselves.”

They recently checked out the footage from a security camera trained on their front door. It showed the postman eating their tomatoes on at least four different occasions in recent days.

The Canada Post employee also appeared to be helping himself to a neighbour’s strawberries.

“It's rude,” Habib said.

“He never came to the door and said, ‘I took one of your tomatoes and it was really good,’ or made a joke about it. He was just doing it and couldn't care less.”

Habib says she doesn’t want the postman fired but would like an apology, and perhaps some restitution in the form of a strawberry pie or tomato sauce.

Canada Post says it will investigate and that customers who have any concerns should contact them.

With a report from CTV Montreal’s Rob Lurie