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American Morning
Pre-Christmas Shopping Rush Has Not Materialized
Aired December 23, 2002 - 08:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It has not been a great weekend for retailers. Early reports saying the pre-Christmas shopping rush they needed has not materialized. Remember, six fewer shopping days this season. If you're still struggling to find any last minute holiday gifts, though, John Zarrella checks in this morning to tell us about a Web site that shows off some really hot merchandise, and we underline that word hot.
Here's John.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The folks who run the Broward Sheriff's Office, BSO, property room will tell you their wish is that under every tree Christmas morning there's a stolen lawn mower or maybe a power tool or rare coins. How about a pair of K Mart jeans? The crook got 24 months for stealing these. Ho, ho, ho. Maybe that special someone in your life likes camping.
SHERIFF KEN JENNE, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: We can send you on a camping trip with a canoe, a sleeping bag and a tent.
ZARRELLA: It used to be that to buy stolen, confiscated and unclaimed merchandise from police departments, you'd have to wait until one of those periodic public auctions. Not anymore. All this stuff is now just a mouse click away. Just go to Propertyroom.com. One hundred and ninety police departments from 14 states have their merchandise listed on the site.
JENNE: Once they're on the Internet, the price will go up because you have more and more people bidding. Rather than just the several million people that live in south Florida that might have an interest on these items, now we have a national audience.
ZARRELLA: Once a month, the Broward Sheriffs Office packs up a truckload of goods and ships it to a central clearinghouses near Los Angeles.
(on camera): The merchandise here won't be priced until it gets out to California. But police say that go carts, for example, are hot items, no pun intended, and these go carts, once they get on the Web site, should bring a good price.
(voice-over): In Los Angeles, the goods are cleaned up, sometimes repaired, appraised and then put on the Web site. There's even a gadget that tests whether a diamond is really a diamond.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That means it's real.
ZARRELLA: Deals are great. Bidding on some stuff starts at a couple bucks. The police departments and Propertyroom.com split the profits 50-50. But police say don't come looking for items from high profile cases.
TOM LANE, PROPERTYROOM.COM: If you're looking for the other glove, we're not going to get the other glove. Cases like that are just not going to, they're not going, the police department is not going to release that stuff to us.
ZARRELLA: But if you're looking for a steal of a deal at the last minute, you might want to check out the cop shop version of Santa's workshop.
John Zarrella, CNN, Fort Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 23, 2002 - 08:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It has not been a great weekend for retailers. Early reports saying the pre-Christmas shopping rush they needed has not materialized. Remember, six fewer shopping days this season. If you're still struggling to find any last minute holiday gifts, though, John Zarrella checks in this morning to tell us about a Web site that shows off some really hot merchandise, and we underline that word hot.
Here's John.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The folks who run the Broward Sheriff's Office, BSO, property room will tell you their wish is that under every tree Christmas morning there's a stolen lawn mower or maybe a power tool or rare coins. How about a pair of K Mart jeans? The crook got 24 months for stealing these. Ho, ho, ho. Maybe that special someone in your life likes camping.
SHERIFF KEN JENNE, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: We can send you on a camping trip with a canoe, a sleeping bag and a tent.
ZARRELLA: It used to be that to buy stolen, confiscated and unclaimed merchandise from police departments, you'd have to wait until one of those periodic public auctions. Not anymore. All this stuff is now just a mouse click away. Just go to Propertyroom.com. One hundred and ninety police departments from 14 states have their merchandise listed on the site.
JENNE: Once they're on the Internet, the price will go up because you have more and more people bidding. Rather than just the several million people that live in south Florida that might have an interest on these items, now we have a national audience.
ZARRELLA: Once a month, the Broward Sheriffs Office packs up a truckload of goods and ships it to a central clearinghouses near Los Angeles.
(on camera): The merchandise here won't be priced until it gets out to California. But police say that go carts, for example, are hot items, no pun intended, and these go carts, once they get on the Web site, should bring a good price.
(voice-over): In Los Angeles, the goods are cleaned up, sometimes repaired, appraised and then put on the Web site. There's even a gadget that tests whether a diamond is really a diamond.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That means it's real.
ZARRELLA: Deals are great. Bidding on some stuff starts at a couple bucks. The police departments and Propertyroom.com split the profits 50-50. But police say don't come looking for items from high profile cases.
TOM LANE, PROPERTYROOM.COM: If you're looking for the other glove, we're not going to get the other glove. Cases like that are just not going to, they're not going, the police department is not going to release that stuff to us.
ZARRELLA: But if you're looking for a steal of a deal at the last minute, you might want to check out the cop shop version of Santa's workshop.
John Zarrella, CNN, Fort Lauderdale.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
