‘It’s gone’: Kamloops archery club reeling after thieves clean out stockpile of gear

An archery club in Kamloops, B.C., is reeling after thieves stole thousands of dollars worth of gear, much of it used to introduce youth to the sport.

The Kamloops Target Sports Association said the devastating blow came early Tuesday morning when thieves broke into storage containers on their Hillside Drive property.

Association president Geoff House said the containers housed about 30 beginner-level bows, hundreds of arrows and associated equipment used to operate their youth and adult beginner programs.

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“This has taken us many years to build up this stockpile, through donations, through a lot of fundraising, through events … so we can promote and grow the sport,” he said.

“Unfortunately we’ve lost that capacity now because they cleaned us out, took all the bows, all the arrows and all the equipment needed (for) all of that.”

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Other items stolen include clothing with the club’s Kamloops Bowbenders logo, tools and tool racks.

The club had multiple security cameras at the site which captured images of what appeared to be a male and female thief, as well as a black pickup truck.

The Kamloops RCMP is now investigating.

“It’s sad … this is going to affect mainly a lot of children’s programs,” said Stephanie Smith, president of Boorman Archery in New Westminster.

Her store is sharing the images captured by the security cameras in the hopes the thieves can be caught.

“Archery is a very tight-knit community, and it’s kind of hard to get rid of stolen archery items. Some of them are quite significant, they are very specific, the way they are built,” she said.

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House said the theft set the club back thousands of dollars and is a tremendous blow to morale.

But he said the association is holding out hope they can get the gear back.

“Beyond those that are involved in the archery sport, (the stolen gear) has no value. It has great value to the club and those that are involved, it really shows organizational pride and now it’s gone,” he said.

“If someone tries to sell you a bow, please reach out to the RCMP, especially if they don’t have a receipt or proof of purchase. We would really like to get this back, that’s really our big goal.”

-With files from Taya Fast