Thieves swipe gift cards, lotto tickets from Nanaimo minor hockey tournament
NANAIMO — Opportunistic, and perhaps well-researched, thieves made off with gift cards and lottery tickets meant for silent auctions and raffle draws.
While closing the Nanaimo Ice Centre down for the night on Friday, March 15 around 11:30 p.m., City staff noticed activity in a warm room above NIC-2, where prizing was locked away during the Nanaimo Minor Hockey Association’s year-end tournament for U8 and U9 players.
Graeme Fipke, NMHA’s tournament director, told NanaimoNewsNOW arena staff headed up and found multiple people inside the warm room, raiding baskets for gift cards and various lottery scratch tickets.
“They were in the process of apparently trying to take the Lego basket, that’s when the City staff had interrupted them and they basically left the Lego basket and took off on foot.”