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CNN Live At Daybreak
Web Site Features Police Property
Aired December 24, 2002 - 05:51 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Are you looking for a gift that's a real bargain, a real steal? Look no further than what the police have in their property rooms.
Here's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The folks who run the Briar (ph) Sheriff's office VSO (ph) property room will tell you their wishes 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 Kmart jeans? The crook got 24 months for stealing these. Ho, ho, ho.
Maybe that special someone in your life likes camping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He 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 any more.
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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 Port (ph) that might have an interest in these items. Now we have a national audience.
ZARRELLA: Once a month, the Briar (ph) Sheriff's Office packs up a truckload of goods and ships it to a central clearing house near Los Angeles.
The merchandise here won't be priced until it gets out to California. But police say that go-karts, for example, are hot items. No pun intended. And these go-karts, once they get on the web site, should bring a good price.
In Los Angeles, the goods are cleaned up, sometimes repaired, appraised and then put up on the web site. There's even a gadget that tested whether a diamond is really a diamond.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That means it's worth.
ZARRELLA: Deals are great. Bidding on some stuff starts at a couple of 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're looking for the other glove, you're not going to get the other glove. Cases like that are just not -- the police department's 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.
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 24, 2002 - 05:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Are you looking for a gift that's a real bargain, a real steal? Look no further than what the police have in their property rooms.
Here's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The folks who run the Briar (ph) Sheriff's office VSO (ph) property room will tell you their wishes 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 Kmart jeans? The crook got 24 months for stealing these. Ho, ho, ho.
Maybe that special someone in your life likes camping.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He 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 any more.
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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 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 Port (ph) that might have an interest in these items. Now we have a national audience.
ZARRELLA: Once a month, the Briar (ph) Sheriff's Office packs up a truckload of goods and ships it to a central clearing house near Los Angeles.
The merchandise here won't be priced until it gets out to California. But police say that go-karts, for example, are hot items. No pun intended. And these go-karts, once they get on the web site, should bring a good price.
In Los Angeles, the goods are cleaned up, sometimes repaired, appraised and then put up on the web site. There's even a gadget that tested whether a diamond is really a diamond.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That means it's worth.
ZARRELLA: Deals are great. Bidding on some stuff starts at a couple of 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.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're looking for the other glove, you're not going to get the other glove. Cases like that are just not -- the police department's 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.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
