Special Report: Steal of a Deal

Det. Anthony Dibona, Quincy police
"These flats screens were from a drug bust"

Police seize property from accused criminals all the time. And evidence rooms, like this one in Quincy, are busting at the seams!

Det. Anthony Dibona, Quincy police
"We get everything - jewelry collectible coins, anything you can imagine."

So what happens to all this stuff after the case is closed?

Police must attempt to return the property to the rightful owner, but many items are not claimed.

And now they can be yours for a "steal!"

Tom Lane, Property Room
"You can sit in the comfort of your living room and you can bid on property."

Retired police officer Tom Lane started propertyroom.com.

Where police departments from across the country can auction off evidence.

Tom Lane, Property Room
"There's a lot of jewelry, stolen bicycles, there's a lot of stolen tools from construction sites and from people's cars."

Here's how it works:

Propertyroom.com picks up the items from participating police departments, and posts them on the site.

Then you can start the bidding!

Check out this diamond studded Rolex watch, it retails at $28,000, but a lucky bidder got it for just $20, 000.

Tom Lane, Property Room
"We stand behind a product also. If we say it's 18-carat gold, we'll stand behind it that it's 18-carat gold."

Check out these Titleist golf clubs, they sell for about $500 dollars, but only cost this bidder 99 bucks.

Or how about a 1997 Mercedes Benz, Blue Book lists it at $4,800, but it sold for only $3,000.  

In the past, auctions in Massachusetts were a lengthy process that cost the city and taxpayers money.

Det. Anthony Dibona, Quincy police
"Well the old days they would have a statute that required us to have an auction, and the logistics of that just wasn't feasible economically and with the money you would' have to pay the help, it just doesn't work well".

Michelle Relerford, 7news:
"Now thanks to propertyroom.com, it's a win -win, a percentage of the money from the online sales goes to the website, but the rest goes back to the city and police."

And that's good news for departments with tight budgets and limited storage space.

Det. Anthony Dibona, Quincy police
"There's no downside to this".

"We actually get some money from it but mainly I get the space."

More and more bay state departments are signing up, like Lowell police, who are auctioning off boxes of stuff, including 24-carat gold jewelry, Hummel statues and even an antique German clock!

Capt. Randall Humphries, Lowell police
"It's going to be a tremendous source of revenue for the city and hopefully the police department , especially in these uncertain economic times."

Right now, PropertyRoom.com works with over 1600 police departments in 47 states.

That includes 77 of the 341 police departments in the commonwealth.

So if your in the market for some hot property you could get a "steal of a deal!"

Property Room does make every attempt to find the rightful owner first and if someone does see something on their site that belongs to them, they just need proof it is theirs and property room will ship it to them at no cost.

Also, police do get a lot of guns and weapons, but those cannot be auctioned off, those must be turned over to the state police to be disposed of.

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