Police turn to Web site auction to sell unclaimed goods

The days of the police auction held behind the station house are over, at least in Indianapolis.\nPolice departments across the nation are looking to the Internet to help clear their store rooms of unclaimed goods, said P.J. Bellomo, chief operating officer for Propertyroom.com, a Web site that caters to this need. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department recently decided to use the site to sell goods recovered throughout the Indianapolis metropolitan area. \n“It helps us to rid ourselves of the items we don’t have room to store,” said Lt. Thomas M. Bruno, property section supervisor. “Our most valuable commodity is space.” \nSelling items over the Internet also saves time for officers, Bruno and Bellomo said. Previously, organizing police auctions required man hours for the property section of the police department, Bruno said. Now, Bruno said he calls Propertyroom.com whenever the store room has accumulated enough goods and the company sends a truck for everything. \nThe Web site also gives shoppers, both locally and across the country, better access to the sales. Traditionally, police auctions have had low attendance, Bellomo said, and pawn shop owners buy most of the goods cheap and mark up the prices. But 20,000 people visit the site every day, Bellomo said. \n“The largest city in the country could not get 20,000 people to show up to a police auction, even if they only held it once a year,” Bellomo said. “We can pick up goods in Indianapolis and take it to New York, and Indiana residents still have better access.” \nThe money generated from the sale of the goods goes into the police pension fund, Bruno said. \nThe Web site makes money every time an item is sold, but Bellomo could not disclose what percentage of the price Propertyroom.com takes. The site will sell between $25 and $30 million worth of goods in 12 months, Bellomo said. \n“We have a revenue-share relationship, so it is always in our best interest to promote the goods,” Bellomo said. \nThe most common items for sale are bicycles, Bruno said. Many bikes are lost or stolen, especially during the summer months, and they tend to pile up in the store room. But shoppers can find almost anything on the site, including safes, televisions, tanning beds and ladders, Bruno said. \nAnd if anyone is looking, Bellomo said they also have a 7-foot fiberglass shark.