Thousands of items the Vancouver Police Department has confiscated this past year will be up for grabs this weekend.
The VPD is putting thousands of items up for auction, including items such as bikes, electronics, instruments, and even toothbrushes and full-body mascot suits.
"We've been doing this for years and the weirdest thing I probably ever saw come in was a prosthetic leg," auction director Rob Kavanagh said. "And the leg went for a couple hundred dollars."
Kavanagh said the annual auction brings out a big crowd every year, mostly of parents whose kids are looking for a new bike.
"We have this whole lot full of bikes, some of which are worth $4,000," he said.
Kavanagh said items usually sell for one fourth of the original retail price.
The auction, scheduled to take place the weekend of May 1st, will sell off all its bikes on Saturday then its miscellaneous items on Sunday.
All the items up for sale at the auction were seized by the VPD during investigations and never claimed.
"I would like to be able to tell [the auctioneers] that we have nothing to sell because all items were retrieved," manager of VPD's property office Ian Wightman said. "But that doesn't always happen and we just don't have the room to store all these items."
Wightman said the best way to avoid having lost or stolen items end up auctioned off is for owners to inscribe their drivers license number into their big ticket items, so if it does go missing VPD can trace it back to the owner.
Approximately $150,000 is expected to be made from the auction. Proceeds will go towards City of Vancouver's general revenue.
The items will be open for public viewing on April 29 and 30th at 1500 Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam. The bidding will start Saturday at 9 a.m. at the same location.
