Bethlehem police see advantage of using online service to auction seized, confiscated items

Officials in Hackettstown say the town may research the use of online auctions for future police and municipal sales.

It’s not the first place you’re likely to check for a new bike, digital camera, wristwatch or shoes, but maybe it should be.

Police auctions have long been a place to find items, sometimes brand new, that are being sold for discounted prices, but departments such as Allentown and Bethlehem have found a way to hock the items to a far wider audience online.

The auction company Property Room, based in Frederick, Md., has thousands of items available for sale online from police departments and municipalities that need to find buyers for items as varied as children’s toys, purses and vehicles.

For the Bethlehem Police Department, which has worked with the auction company since 2006, the arrangement has been a big help clearing the already tight space available.

“The reason we ended up using it is because it is too burdensome and time-consuming to run auctions, to auction the stuff or wait for the city to auction the stuff ... primarily because we run out of space,”Bethlehem Deputy Commissioner Craig Finnerty said. “It was essential for us to free up the limited space we do have.”

Property Room serves roughly 2,800 clients nationwide, according to spokeswoman Stephanie Grabbe. The service the company is able to provide law enforcement offices, Grabbe said, usually has a lot to do with the concerns Finnerty expressed. Grabbe said another advantage is a wider audience for auctions and a better chance at getting the items off the auction block.

“It really didn’t do a lot for the police department itself,” Grabbe said. “A lot of times they actually lost money when they were doing these live auctions. Here’s a way to make these auctions easier and a way of getting the goods to a mass audience.”

Finnerty said the police department generally gets items from drug raids, asset seizures, forfeitures or from otherwise abandoned and unclaimed property. The stuff can add up, he said — especially when it’s larger items such as bicycles or vehicles.

“You’ve got to find a way to unload it,” Finnerty said.

Better returns, convenience with online auction

P.J. Bellomo, chief executive officer of Property Room, described the company’s ethos in simple terms.

“We haul away headaches and send back money,” Bellomo said.

Finnerty didn’t have exact figures for what the department makes in the auctions. Bellomo said confidentiality limits what he can disclose, but he said the department likely receives payments for the items sold online at a couple hundred dollars a month.

It might not seem like a lot, but Bellomo said the profit is usually four to six times higher than departments used to bring in with conventional auctions. Property Room, he said, is able to bring in expert jewelers and appraisers to get better prices for the items on sale and can weed out counterfeit products much more effectively than police departments can alone.

The company takes a commission off each item sold based on its price, Bellomo said. The commission is defined in a contract, he said, and the rates remain the same for each client.

A California sheriff’s department ended up selling a rare coin for thousands of dollars and an upstate New York police department will soon learn that a wristwatch in police custody is valued at more than a $100,000, according to Bellomo.

“They would never have found out (these values) if they were still selling things at auctions in the department’s back parking lot,” Bellomo said.

Laws require police departments to hold on to items for a period of time before they can sell them, Finnerty said — even longer if a department is aware of the owner. But after that time expires, Finnerty said, the department has to find a solution. Property Room’s regular pickups have made that job easier, he said.

“Frankly, we need it. We need it bad,” Finnerty said. “Our building hasn’t grown. Even with substations throughout the city, we’re still always in need of space.”

Move to online possible

Two departments smaller than Bethlehem that sit on the other side of the Delaware River have yet to turn to online auctions but say the switch could come in the future.

Hackettstown Detective Darren Tynan said the town holds auctions for police and municipal items once every few years. According to Town Clerk Bill Kuster, the last took place in 2007 and the next could happen later this year.

Tynan said the department doesn’t have to find homes for as many items as Bethlehem, but bicycles are a different story.

“The only thing that’s really big on the police side is the bicycles. We have about a hundred,” Tynan said.

Kuster said online auction services like Property Room could be a possibility in the future.

“That would definitely reach a bigger market,” Kuster said.

Phillipsburg Police Chief James Faulborn said the town usually auctions items off yearly but said the extra time it takes to log and catalog the items can be arduous.

“It’s something that we have to be cognizant of,” Faulborn said.

Any decisions to make the switch to a service like Property Room, however, would be up to town administrators, Faulborn said.