Gift cards and lottery tickets from various raffle baskets were taken late Friday, March 15 from the Nanaimo Ice Centre, during a tournament being hosted by the Nanaimo Minor Hockey Association. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

STOLEN PRIZES

Thieves swipe gift cards, lotto tickets from Nanaimo minor hockey tournament

Mar 18, 2024 | 4:05 PM

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.”

Fipke was told the thieves were able to escape using one of the warm room’s two doors, then fled the building.

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The total value of the prizes stolen was $360.

“It’s obviously suspicious they knew exactly where to go,” Fipke said. “I believe they had knowledge obviously there was a tournament going on and that’s where we typically store that material.”

He’s hoping security footage will indicate not only who the thieves were, but also how they got access to the room.

Both City and tournament staff are confident the area was locked at the time of the incident, according to Fipke.

It put a damper on what was otherwise a successful weekend, with 14 teams in the two age divisions facing off on the ice.

Fipke said Nanaimo Minor Hockey Association replenished the tournament funds immediately and replacement cards and tickets were purchased over the weekend to go back into prize baskets.

He added the replacement money would unfortunately have to come from somewhere else.

“We buy new nets, we buy new jerseys, the funds are always earmarked for a plan. Somewhere in that balance sheet, we’ll have to remove $360 to replenish this, so it definitely has a ripple effect with our plans as an association.”

Anyone with information regarding the theft is asked to contact Nanaimo RCMP at 250 754 2345.

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