HAMILTON, Ont. - Thieves in Ontario have made off with several poppy donation boxes just days into the annual fundraising campaign for veterans.
Boxes were stolen from two Tim Hortons restaurants in Hamilton on Thursday morning, a day after police reported the theft of a box from a Toronto pizza shop.
Doug Tulloch, a member of the Royal Canadian Legion in Hamilton, said it's not the first time the boxes -- or the cash they contain -- have gone missing.
"Anybody who steals from the poppy boxes, or any other charity for that matter, is pretty immoral," he said Thursday, just over a week before Remembrance Day.
The legion runs the poppy campaign each November to raise funds for veterans.
Police in Hamilton said a man placed an order at a Tim Hortons on Ottawa Street North at about 5:30 a.m. and fled with two poppy donation boxes when the clerk turned away from the counter.
About 30 minutes later, the same thing happened at a Tim Hortons on King Street West with a man matching the same description, police said.
Police have released video footage of the thefts.
They've also issued a security camera photo of a suspect in the Toronto theft, which took place Monday night at a Pizza Nova shop on The Queensway near Royal York.
