Get Yourself Some Confiscated Goods Cheap!
The Gadzookian
In the fall-out of the discovery of thousands of bikes that had been horded by an accused bike thief, curious Torontonians wondered what would happen to the lot of them, as there couldn’t be that many people able to identify or claim their stolen bikes from the mass of disintegrating metal found in the many garages and sheds throughout the city.
Apparently the police, who have been donated the use of a warehouse by a local businessman, will be holding on to the bikes (and tricycles) for 6 months. After that, they will be auctioned off on the police ebay site.
The ebay site, which sells of both confiscated goods from the Toronto Police as well as unclaimed items from the TTC, features an interesting selection of items for discount shoppers. If you haven’t visited the sales site, it’s worth taking a peek at some of the more interesting selection of items available:
LOT OF ASSORTED SWIMWEAR AND SHORTS! (which appear to be selling for $5 as of Thursday)
A 22 INCH SILVER MARINER NECKLACE!
BLACK AND DECKER BANDSAW! Would make a funky side table!
There are already a lot of bikes being sold on the auction site – some of them in lots of 8 that appear to be selling off for little under $50. It will be interesting to see how many more appear in the coming months.
It is also interesting to explore the site and wonder where some of the stuff came from. Did somebody leave a box of hairspray on the TTC or is that something that the police picked up in a beauty salon theft ring sting?
When looking at the items being auctioned off, too, I wondered what became of all the books that must be found each year on the subways and streetcars, as a story in The New Yorker recounts of those discovered in their subways each year, there must be as many copies of Harry Potter and various bibles floating around somewhere in Toronto as New York City. A little Google searching reveals that they are sold off at a book sale each February as part of a Toronto Public Library campaign “Keep Toronto Reading” – excellent!
Still, I am curious about all those lost hats and mittens and umbrellas. Where do they go? Somewhere someone must be hoarding stashes of used umbrellas. Maybe we should be checking out some more sheds in the west end…