A thief made off with a book of raffle tickets from the downtown Scotiabank branch on Victoria Street and none of those tickets were placed in the bin for last week's grand prize draw, which happened Saturday.

Positive Living North, which sponsored the draw in support of people in Prince George living with HIV/AIDS, wants to offer refunds to anybody who purchased as many as 20 stolen tickets with serial numbers between 0261 and 0280.

Only four of the 20 tickets were sold by the bank and filled out by customers before the book was stolen. The culprit might have sold the other 16.

"If somebody bought a ticket to support us, I want to honour that," said Sandra Sasaki, education manager for Positive Living North and co-ordinator of last Saturday's HIV/AIDS fundraising walk at Masich Place Stadium.

"This is our very first raffle. It was a huge fundraiser for us."

Kathleen Taylor won the draw for two airline tickets to anywhere WestJet travels and a pair of CFL tickets for the B.C. Lions-Calgary Stampeders football game in Vancouver Oct. 6.

The stolen book of tickets was sitting on a shelf near the bank tellers and is believed to have gone missing on the afternoon of Sept. 20. Sasaki said the theft investigation was turned over to the RCMP, which has obtained a video surveillance tape of the bank.

About 250 people took part in the third annual HIV/AIDS walk, raising more than $17,000 for the cause. The raffle brought in about $2,000.

"The money is used to directly support people living with HIV in our area, it stays in our area," said Sasaki.

For more information on refunds, call Sasaki at Positive Living North at 250-562-1172.