A real estate agent was fined $15,000 for drinking milk out of a carton from a seller's fridge

• A homeowner captured a real-estate agent drinking milk out of a carton from her fridge during a showing.
• She reported him to a government agency, which fined him more than $15,000.

A real-estate agent in Canada has been fined 20,000 Canadian dollars, the equivalent of $15,087, after a home surveillance camera caught him drinking milk straight from a container at a seller's house and then putting it back in the fridge, The Washington Post reported.

The agent, Mike Rose, was waiting to show a house in Kamloops, British Columbia, to potential buyers in July last year when the homeowner, Lyska Fullerton, left the property, per The Post.

Later in the day, Fullerton decided to check her Ring camera, expecting to see Rose giving a home tour to a group of prospective buyers, she told The Post.

But to her surprise she saw footage of Rose walking into the kitchen, taking a carton of milk out of her fridge, and drinking from it, before putting it back, the newspaper reported.

Fullerton said she was "utterly speechless, in shock, and creeped out," largely because the incident took place while the COVID-19 pandemic was still a major source of concern. The pandemic had killed both her parents and her parents-in-law, she said, according to The Post.

According to the homeowner, the surveillance footage also showed Rose lounging on her couch and accidentally breaking its arm, the newspaper reported.

"This was unprofessional in so many ways," Fullerton told The Post.

"Every part of it was just such an invasion of privacy and such an invasion of our home," she added.

Fullerton said she confronted Rose two days after the incident and asked him if he had anything he wanted to tell her, per The Post. The newspaper reported that Fullerton said Rose replied, "The milk?"

Soon after, Fullerton reported the agent, explaining to The Post that it wasn't so much about the milk, but more that the agent had failed to disclose his actions to her.

"He didn't even leave a note or tell us this happened. I had to find out because of my camera, and that's just gross and plain wrong," she said. "It makes you question your trust in people who visit your home."

On July 18, the British Columbia Financial Services Authority seemingly agreed, deeming Rose's actions "unbecoming" behavior that undermined the reputation of the real estate industry, citing the British Columbia Real Estate Services Act, per The Post.

In addition to the fine, the agency ordered him to pay 2,500 Canadian dollars, or $1,886, in enforcement expenses, records reviewed by The Post show.

Rose did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but in his defense, he told the government agency that he was unusually dehydrated at the time due to new medication and stress, according to The Post.

In a statement provided to CFJC Today, Rose apologized for his "very unfortunate, and very uncharacteristic, decision to drink milk from a container from the homeowners' fridge."

"I have never done this kind of thing before, nor will I ever behave in this way again," he said, adding: "I acted in a way that is unbecoming of my brokerage firm and my fellow realtors."