The eBay of the Police World

My column for the weekly newspaper, for the publication date of 10/21/2008.

Imagine yourself at a funeral for a loved one and he has just been taken from you. The funeral home charges you for sending that relative to the greater beyond. That is somewhat normal; you set aside money for a funeral and want it to be respectful.

Now imagine the funeral home sells off the valuables placed in the coffins.

That is a comparison I link to a police collaboration called Property-Room.com that sells seized and unclaimed items.

I was watching the 10 o'clock news when I heard about this service. Property Room specializes in the auction of stolen, seized, found and surplus goods and vehicles, serving more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies nationwide according to its Web site.

Initially, I thought this was a good idea. Police departments need space in their inventory rooms and have few options to help clear out acquired items. When watching the news report, the reporter showed viewers the assortment of items, from power tools to designer handbags. Jewelry, cameras and even out-of-service-police cruisers are available for bid on this site. What could be better than a boosted gravestone?

The way the story was presented made me feel like the police were providing a service that was of benefit to the general public. I was terribly misled.

Sure that laptop or that beat-up Honda Civic was previously in possession or used by a convicted felon, but what the heck, a car for as cheap as $500, what's wrong with that?

In my opinion, this site is a misuse of the Internet by some police departments. The items that are available for auction have been cleared for sale by the department after an "attempt" to return them to their original owners.

This site gives police departments an excuse to not try as hard to return items to their owners, with the incentive of bringing revenue to the force.

According to its Web site, Property Room harnesses the power of the Internet to quickly move items out of police property rooms, reduce personnel costs and generate revenue well beyond traditional police auction methods.

It sounds like an ideal situation for both cash-strapped consumers and our boys and girls in blue, but is it a greed-driven ruse?

I feel their problem with available space could be solved with a couple more man-hours in the checking of property serial numbers and increased awareness of seized property that needs to be claimed.

A few years back, my sister's car was stolen and her personal belonging were taken from inside the vehicle. She filed a report with the local police and didn't hear back from an officer for a while, eventually getting a new car considering the old one lost.

After purchasing the new vehicle she was told that her car was found and was almost sold in an auction when a representative of the towing company who found the car finally checked the serial number.

I am not tar-and-feathering the police department. They do a good job serving and protecting, but this site seems to go step to the side of the basic services of the police department.

Is it right to sell the inventory items when they are the stolen property of someone else?

If you are browsing the pages looking for something that was stolen from you, the Web site also offers a service through a sub-category called stealitback.com. The stolen goods repository can help theft victims be reunited with their stolen property by checking serial numbers of recorded auction items.

Again, why should you have to search to find your stolen goods? Wouldn't you like a little help in finding your missing merchandise? Isn't that the idea behind filling out a police report?