On Tuesday night, thieves dressed as Robin Hood raided a Montreal grocery store and handed out stolen goods to protest soaring food prices. Just a few weeks later, the same group targeted a grocery store dressed as Santa and his elves.
An activist group calling itself Robin de Ruel (Robin of the Alleys) said about 60 people, some wearing Robin Hood-style hats with feathers, entered Rachelle Berry’s health food store, took food without paying and redistributed it to “many communal refrigerators in the city,” calling it a “political act” against food inflation.
The theft follows a similar incident in December, when members of the same group dressed up as Santa Claus and his elves broke into a Montreal grocery store, stole food and left some wrapped in gifts under a nearby Christmas tree.
The cost of living has been a major theme in Canada, with Canada’s inflation rate increasing by 4.7% from November 2024 to 2025, according to CNN’s Canadian broadcast partner CBC. This is more than twice the overall inflation rate.
“We work tirelessly every day, but we can only buy food from profit-driven supermarkets,” Roban de Ruel’s statement quoted Francis, one of the group’s members, as saying. “When you can’t just work two jobs to make ends meet, have a roof over your head and take care of your family, any means necessary is justified.”
An edited video posted on Instagram by activist group Les Soulèvements du Fleuve shows the attack on the Rachel Berry store, interspersed with title credits from the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood.
In the video, people wearing masks walk through the aisles, picking up items such as food, medicine and soap. Some people use spray paint to block security cameras inside and outside stores. At the end of the video, one person sprays “F**k Les Profit” on a brick wall.
CNN has reached out to Rachel Berry’s parent company, Sobeys, for comment.
Montreal police spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant told CNN that police began investigating the theft and graffiti on Wednesday. No one was injured in the incident and no arrests have been made so far, Brabant said.
“We don’t know the amount or the amount of stolen property,” Brabant said. He estimated the value of the items at “several thousand dollars,” the same rough figure published by Robin de Ruel on Wednesday. He added that police had not yet recovered any items.
The canton of Brabant said the Christmas-themed theft in December was “still under investigation as we speak” but no arrests had been made.
