SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - All that remains of $600 to $800 worth of empty pop cans that were to go toward Yellowknife 1st Scout Troop activities is $14.10 and the three bags they were delivered in.

Last week these scouts were looking forward to cashing in on $600 to $800 of empty pop cans -- until they were stolen. Despite the disappointment the scouts turned out for Remembrance Day, and are pictured before the parade at the Royal Canadian Legion. From back left, Adam Leung, Grant Clarke and Mike Kalnay. Front front left, Lynden Dean-Maitland, Angus Martin, Logan Clarke and Quinn Levesque. - Charlotte Hilling/NNSL photo

The scouts were given the empties by BHP Billiton, which collects them from the mine and donates them every three months or so.

BHP Billiton "brought us back three giant bags of empties," said Mike Kalnay, commissioner for the NWT Scouts.

The empties were stored at the Folk on the Rocks site at Scouts House, and Kalnay said the bottles had been at the site for at least a month, "certainly long enough for someone to find out they were there."

The scouts were due to start the sorting process Nov. 7 but when some scouts went out to the site to get the heaters running the night before, they noticed the empties were gone.

"When we went to sort them out, they were gone," said Kalnay.

Nothing else from the building was taken and the thieves even left the large industrial bags the empties were delivered in.

"They repackaged these things," said Kalnay. "If they'd taken the big bags the guy at the bottle return would probably know who they were."

"But if they just take them in trash bags and keep it under $100, they can return them all. The perfect crime."

The theft will have a profound effect on Scouts activities for the next few months.

"We use the money to pay for camps for the kids and to pay for activities," said Kalnay. "We'll have to raise the money some other how."

The money also goes toward the large amount of wood needed to heat the scout camp but acquiring the fire wood may now fall to the kids.

"I don't know, maybe we're going to be chopping wood at camp instead of doing scout activities," he said.

The RCMP have been informed of the incident. In a media statement the RCMP said a window was broken to gain entry to the building, and officers are seeking assistance from the public to identify the people involved.