Santa and his elves just made the naughty list, as camera catches them filling carts at Montreal grocery store, but they weren’t shopping

A group of people dressed as Santa and masked elves were caught on camera filling up several grocery carts at a Montreal store on Monday night. They left the building without paying for any of the food. Montreal police are now investigating the incident as a shoplifting case.

According to the CBC, the event happened around 9:15 PM on Monday on Laurier Avenue, near Chambord Street. Police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils confirmed that several masked and disguised people were involved. They left the store with the stolen food.

An activist group called Robins des ruelles, which means Robins of the Alleys, took responsibility for the theft on social media. The group called it a “great food drive” and a political protest. They said the stolen food was worth about $3,000.

The group defended their actions with a controversial statement

The activists explained why they stole the food. They said supermarket chains are using inflation as an excuse to raise prices while making record profits. Meanwhile, regular people are struggling to afford basic groceries. A statement on their Instagram page was direct about their message. “A handful of corporations are holding our basic needs hostage,” it said. “For us, that’s theft, and they are the real criminals.”

The group didn’t keep the stolen food for themselves. They gave it away under a Christmas tree at place Valois in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve area. Any leftover food went to community fridges around the city. This kind of vigilante action isn’t new, as we’ve seen people step in to stop criminals in unexpected ways before.

The timing of this protest makes sense when you look at recent food price data. Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index for November showed that grocery inflation reached its highest rate in almost two years. While overall inflation was 2.2 percent, food prices jumped 4.7 percent compared to last year. Food costs have been rising faster than general inflation since August 2024.

Public reaction on social media has been mostly positive, showing how frustrated people are with high grocery prices. However, Metro, the store that was robbed, strongly condemned the stunt. Spokesperson Geneviève Grégoire said theft is always unacceptable and is a criminal act, no matter the reason. Public safety concerns remain important, just like when strangers send warning signals to protect each other.

Marc-André Cyr, a political science lecturer at Université du Québec à Montréal, noted the huge gap between institutions calling this a crime and the public seeing it as acceptable. He believes this action works because it forces people to talk about poverty, inflation, and grocery store profits. Police are reviewing videos of the incident, but no arrests have been made yet.