It's a disturbing story out of Mid-town Toronto.

A man claims someone stole a living Christmas tree from the garden on his property.

Dave Sparrow lives in the Bayview and Eglinton area, and told Newstalk1010's Jim Richards, that he'd planted the tree about 8 years ago and was shocked to find someone had cut it down in the middle of the night.

He says the tree was an Yew tree and was about 7 feet tall.

Sparrow says he knows lots of 'pranksters' but can't think of anyone who would do something like this. He says at worst someone he knows would decorate the tree with obscene things.

What makes this more astounding, is that Sparrow says it didn't happen in some back lot in the country. It happened in his garden, right near his house in Mid-Town Toronto.