TORONTO

Dealing with Toronto panhandlers is once again a sticky situation.

The infamous “Sticker Lady” — a fixture on Toronto’s Yonge St. for parts of the past two decades — has recently reappeared in the area after last being spotted in Montreal in 2005.

Shuffling past vendors outside the Eaton Centre selling single-stemmed roses for Valentine’s Day Thursday, Catherine “Katie” Hebert has rehearsed her schtick — she politely offers passersby a shiny smiley face sticker with a smile. Then immediately asks them for money.

Hebert was giving the same spiel when in 2005, a Toronto Sun investigation revealed that at the end of each workday Hebert drove her leased 2001 Volkswagen Jetta back to a three-storey, $330,000 house in Hamilton owned by her husband.

At the time, Hebert vehemently denied the money was for anyone except herself and her children — two daughters, one a teenager and the other 25. However, those she approached said she claimed to collect for a wide range of charitable causes, including a “youth empowerment fund,” the homeless, sick kids and “youth storm victims” of tsunamis.

“No, never asking for that,” she said when confronted Thursday while holding a sheet of stickers and wearing a black parka, purse and winter boots. None of her donors interviewed Thursday said she claimed to be collecting for charities.

But Toronto Police Const. Victor Kwong said Hebert was charged for theft under $5,000 for panhandling outside the Eaton Centre in June 2001. There were three other occasions between 2001 and 2005 when officers filled out “contact cards” identifying they’d spoken with her even though she was not charged.

Within an hour Thursday, Hebert, now in her 50s, approached at least 30 people and roughly half gave her money. Sometimes it was spare change, other times she collected bills.

Mark Majchrowski, 35, who donated $4.50 to Hebert’s pockets, said he felt duped when he recognized her after the fact.

“She told me it was for her kids,” Majchrowski said. “That’s not the right thing to do. Her moral compass is kind of off balance. I should’ve known.”

For her part, Hebert was soft-spoken and her permanent smile never left her face. She wore makeup. She didn’t answer many questions put towards her. When asked if she was collecting money for her kids, she refused to answer, instead asking for a business card and promising to call later.

“I was never asking for a charity, I’m just struggling,” she said, with her arm outreached, offering a purple smiley-faced sticker. “You can still have one, if no one gave you a valentine today.”

She denied being previously quoted as making $75 a day, but wouldn’t speculate how much money she brings in. In previous stories, she claimed to report her full income from the stickers to Revenue Canada.

Hebert stated she once lived in the basement of her husband’s Hamilton home, but insisted she doesn’t live there anymore.

“(The house) was never mine,” she said. “OK, if you want to be judgmental … I was never able to access whatever was going on. I’m a beggar. The VW? Long gone. Let me just give you a call.”

Homeless outreach worker Charlie Smith said that since May, he’s seen the Sticker Lady circle the perimeter of the Eaton Centre each day, handing out stickers. He’s shooed her away several times because it interferes with his business selling newspapers to support shelters.

“We’re out here making nothing,” Smith said. “I’ve watched her get six people in a 10-minute period. Meanwhile, there are actual people who need the money. It’s like the Shaky Lady up on Bloor — same principle, just different concept.”