So long, suds: Yellowknife's stolen beer kegs located, sans beer

All the beer kegs stolen earlier this month from Yellowknife's Northern Frontier Visitor's Centre have been found — but not before the thieves found their way into their heisted cargo.

"It seems like some of the thieves were able to get into the kegs," said Elijah Forget, the director of communications at the Northern Frontier Visitor's Centre.

• Beer keg thieves showed no preference for Yukon vs. N.W.T. brews

Eight kegs were stolen on June 6, following a World Shore Lunch Championship event held at the centre over the weekend. Four of the kegs, along with a dolly that had gone missing, were found near the centre shortly after the theft. The remaining four were found at various locations on Yellowknife's Frame Lake Trail.

Thieves went through quite the effort to steal the suds: breaking into a truck parked at the Centre, transporting the kegs — which can't easily be done by one person — and then finding a way to open them.

"Imagine if they had taken all of those efforts and directed them at some sort of productive labour," said Forget. "Kind of shows you how people sometimes just really misplace their energies in life."

Forget has reasons to be bitter, saying that the centre was hoping to re-sell some of the beer that remained following the event to recoup their expenses.

"Obviously that couldn't happen at this point," he said. "So all we were able to get back were the keg deposits."

Money raised was going to go towards much-needed repairs for the centre, which is sinking into the surrounding muskeg. Forget says that the theft will factor into future event planning, but won't deter the centre from holding fundraisers.

He also has a message for the thieves,

"What a selfish, heartless thing to do," he said. "We're a not-for-profit facility. We're trying to raise money to save our building from falling into the lake, and you get people who just don't care about any of that."

RCMP say the investigation into the theft is ongoing.