It was meant to get advice on how to deal with pesky pests, but videos showing squirrels in Toronto’s east end stealing chocolate bars from a store have gone viral.
“A lot of people were shocked initially,” Jenny Kim, daughter of the store’s owners, Paul and Juliet Kim, told Global News while talking about reaction to the videos.
“We have a close-knit community here, so a lot of customers will be coming by and talking about how they saw the video.”
She said the first video was shot and posted in October and the second video was shot in November and posted in January.
Jenny said about 40 chocolate bars have been taken over the past year, but she recalled what happened when her dad saw a squirrel taking a Kinder Bueno bar back in October and started filming.
“He couldn’t actually catch the squirrel and get the bar back, so instead of doing nothing with the video we decided to go to Reddit to get some advice to see how we can stop the squirrels from getting more chocolate bars,” she said, adding her sister posted the videos online.
Jenny said her mother was working in November and noticed a squirrel coming in. Juliet took out her camera and shot video as the squirrel walked off with a Crunchie bar.
“Sometimes (Paul and Juliet) take breaks and they hear something crinkling and moving around, and the next thing they know there’s nothing there,” Jenny added.
She said people mostly recommended putting up a fence, which Jenny said would affect accessibility, or closing the door. But during warmer days, it’s too difficult to operate.
“During the fall time, it was pretty hot so we had to keep the door open,” she said.
“We couldn’t turn up (the air conditioning) and keep the door closed because it would end up being really expensive.”
Jenny said the family is hoping for a more effective solution to stop the thieving squirrels, but for now weather is on their side.
“Since it’s winter time, we can afford to keep the door closed. But hopefully during the spring and summer time, the squirrels won’t learn to come back.”