Tomato-stealing 'squirrel' turns out to be mailman

July 13 (UPI) -- A Quebec family who set up a camera to catch a suspected squirrel stealing their tomatoes made a shocking discovery -- the culprit was the mailman.

Rob Morin and Paula Habib said they noticed in June that produce was going missing from their tomato and strawberry plants outside their home in Mount Royal, a Montreal suburb, and they suspected a squirrel was behind the vanishing fruits.

"We had a full set of tomatoes and then all of a sudden the tomatoes started going down. We didn't take any ourselves; we thought it was the squirrels," Habib told CTV News.

Morin said they started to think something else was happening when the suspected squirrels didn't leave a mess.

"We first thought it was the squirrels, but normally the squirrels leave a mess and there was not a mess on the ground where the plants were," he told CNN.

The family checked their home security cameras and made a startling discovery -- their Canada Post delivery worker was pilfering the produce.

"For fun we check our security cameras and spotted, on many occasions, our postman helping himself to our tomatoes and strawberries," Morin said.

The couple said they don't want the postman fired, but they would like an apology for the rude behavior.

"It would have been OK if he took a couple as a quick snack, or let us know as a joke he took a couple and they tasted great," Morin said. "But he took so many and did not notify us that there was pretty much nothing left for us to eat."

Habib said all would be forgiven if the mailman offers to replace the plants or brings them some tomato sauce or strawberry pie.