CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
HPD evidence custodian supervisor Ida Quinn yesterday held a CD player going up for auction.
HPD goes online to
sell unclaimed goodsItems are shipped to California,
saving space and money
The Honolulu Police Department has gone online to get rid of unclaimed seized and stolen property.
The first items were put up for sale June 19 at www.propertyroom.com, operated by the California-based company Property Bureau, which sells unclaimed property for 237 police departments and about 50 other governmental agencies across the country.
Selling the items online frees up space in police evidence rooms because the items are sent to a warehouse in California, said Ivy Lee, HPD evidence custodian.
The online sales also save the department money because it no longer has to pay overtime for officers to help conduct the auctions, Lee said.
Yesterday, HPD sent its second shipment of goods to Property Bureau.
The company has a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Los Angeles and a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in New York, said Thomas Fegan, Property Bureau vice president. It also has space at its headquarters in San Clemente, Calif., for jewelry.
Previously, HPD conducted quarterly auctions at its headquarters to sell unclaimed property, two for bicycles and mopeds and two for all other goods including jewelry, electronics and sporting goods. The auctions were conducted by Mark Glen Auctions. The last bicycle and moped auction was Sept. 21, while the last auction for jewelry and other goods was Nov. 23.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
These tools shown by evidence custodian supervisor Ida Quinn will be among the items sold for HPD in an online auction.
Under the terms of its previous arrangement, the city collected 90 percent of the auctions' proceeds and Mark Glen Auctions collected 10 percent. Last year, the city's share was $56,017, which went into the city's general fund. The auctions netted the city $48,754 in 2001 and $40,195 in 2000.
Under the terms of its new arrangement, HPD collects 50 percent for items that sell for up to $1,000 and 75 percent for items that sell for more than $1,000.
Still, Lee said, the department expects the online sales will bring more money to city coffers because the items are available to a wider pool of bidders online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Property Bureau cleans and repairs items before putting them on its Web site. They are posted for five days and are sold to the highest bidder. If they are not sold, the items may be reappraised or repackaged then put online for another five days.
Items sold online are shipped to the buyer, who picks up the cost of the shipping. However mopeds remain in the city of the originating agency requiring buyers to pick them up. Property Bureau has a storage area on Oahu for mopeds, Fegan said.
Property Bureau approached HPD late last year and worked out a deal, Fegan said. He said the company is also working on selling the unclaimed property of the other Hawaii police departments.
Property Bureau sells more than 98 percent of the items it receives and has conducted more than 100,000 successful auctions since the company went online in February 2001, Fegan said. The company has a return policy but less than 3 percent of the items it sells are returned, he said.
