Times are tough in Toronto as rising rent prices aredrastically outpacing wages, basic food items keep gettingprogressively more overpriced, inflation on mortgage lending rateshas hit a record highand more peopleare claiming insolvency than ever.

As peopleadjust their daily habitsto try and keep expenses down, some have turned tostealing food from Loblaws, while others have even moved on to thefts from far less deserving targets than supermarket magnates: their own neighbours.

阿宝sts about Toronto porch pirates and plant kidnappers have abounded on hyperlocal social media platform Nextdoor and in various community Facebook groups lately, with people caught on doorbell cameras stealing everything frompackagesandplantstobikesandcity-issued garbage bins.

One resident of Lawrence Parkposted footageof someone spending minutes digging up plants from their front yard and loading them into a truck during daylight hours.

"STOLEN EVERGREENS from front lawn at 8:48 p.m. today," they wrote along with the clip, which shows a man slowing to a stop, pulling over and grabbing a shovel from the bed of his truck. He then proceeds to exhume three of the four evergreens in question from near the end of the home's driveway before the clip cuts.

People are commenting in shock, calling the actbrazen, shameless and sad, and noting the man's audacity "all for $150 worth of shrubs."

People in Toronto are now resorting to stealing plants and more from neighbour's yards - Gabriella S.pic.twitter.com/s8e5ulpWgI

— blogTO (@blogTO)July 24, 2023

In another post, a culprit is shown having the guile to go up onto someone's front porch andsteal armfuls of flower planterson Crawford Street, while another did the same to naba strollerin Trinity-Bellwoods.

Residents parked in an underground garage in the city had their cars jacked up and the catalytic converters stolen from themlast month, whileone personsaid they have had parcels, a birdhouse, solar lights and even a pizza taken from their veranda in recent weeks.

"Everyone, if you're going to leave stuff out like this please lock it to the railings. People are desperate, even more these days and plenty of people are being robbed... This city is going downhill,"one community memberwarned others after multiple baby carriage thefts in their area.

"So disturbing. It is very unfortunate that we always need to be on the lookout,"another wroteregarding a video of yet another late-night garden robbery. "Was a shocker to hear thieves were actually digging people's plants out of the ground."

The flurry of similar posts has many worrying about the state of Toronto, with such exorbitant costs for everything and a perceived uptick in crimes thatfeel like they have become the norm, whether petty like theseor more serious.