When Davy Greenlees, deputy area commissioner for properties for the local branch of Scouts Canada, went out to the West Lake camp Monday, the chain had been cut from the gate and he knew that what he was about to see wasn't going to be good.
Greenlees was hoping the sign that said 'this is Scouts Canada property for the children's use and if you're stealing from here you're stealing from the children's program' would be a deterrent but it didn't seem to matter.
Thieves stole two canoes from the shed at Camp Hughes. The theft leaves the camp with only four canoes for the scouts to use.
The thefts were committed between June 26 and 29.
"The sad part of losing the canoes is we don't have replacement insurance on them and we certainly don't have the funds to buy more," said Greenlees.
Several groups use the canoes frequently during the summer including the Cub Scouts, Ventures and Rovers.
"So we're going to have to figure out how to replace them because we do use them often," said Greenlees.
The stolen canoes are a green Pelican brand, and the other is a faded red canoe which may have been made by Voyageur, Greenlees said.
"Every building on the property was broken into," said Greenlees. "They busted the locks off, went in, had a look - the kitchen door was kicked in, but of course that one wasn't locked, they could have just turned the doorknob - so we're not dealing with the smartest people, I guess."
There's one building that's for storage and they went through old camping gear but didn't steal anything and then went through all the other outbuildings.
There is another group that are victims of the theft, too.
Scouts Canada has provided The North Breast Passage Dragon Boat team with a shed to store their equipment on the property and Greenlees said it looked untouched, but there was a back door that he didn't even know existed and it was discovered later that's how the shed was accessed.
The local dragon boat team is a not-for-profit society started in 2000 and the only team of its kind north of Kamloops.
The group consists of women between the ages of 30 and 76 who have breast cancer, or survived breast cancer, who raise awareness by participating in dragon boat races at festivals.
The team lost nine blue life jackets with their logo on them: North Breast Passage Dragon Boat Team.
Seven small-medium and two extra-large life jackets were stolen along with two brand-new dragon boat paddles that are 47 inches long, which is longer than average.
The only unique markings on the paddles are stickers depicting numbers "4" and "6."
"It's upsetting to think that someone would go in and steal things from the camp like that," said Sharon Parrett, vice president of the North Breast Passage Dragon Boat Society.
"It's just so sad," said Parrett. "You know Scouts Canada has just been so incredibly kind to us, allowing us to use their property and it's just so beautiful there - and you know there's not a lot of places you can park a 40-foot boat - and we go away thinking it's going to be safe and then something like this happens."
Police are asking for the public's help to identify the person or persons responsible for this crime.
"At this point we're at a dead end," said Cpl. Craig Douglass of the Prince George RCMP.
