Leesburg Police Join Online Auction Site

The recently partnered with Property Room, an online auction website known for making police auctions available to a nationwide audience.

The site conducts online auctions consisting of forfeited, seized, found or surplus items, which often end up collecting dust in the property rooms of law enforcement agencies and municipalities.

“I like to compare it to eBay because it’s the easiest way to explain what we do,” said Property Room Account Executive Stephanie Grabbe.

Given the fact that a lot of the back-stories of the items are unknown, you’ll find a lot of unusual products, she said. At the same time, there is a wide range of inventory, so there area a lot of useful items as well.

“Really, the inventory varies,” Grabbe said. There are watches, lawn mowers and vehicles, just to name a few. “We like to say that it’s a treasure hunt while shopping online because you never know what you’re going to get.”

Founded by a former police officer at least 10 years ago, Property Room provides an auction platform for more than 2,800 police departments and municipalities nationwide. The auctions relieve police departments from the time and expense of holding their own auctions.

To date, these communities across the United States have benefitted with more than $41 million in returned proceeds, according to Property Room. Property Room manages the entire process, offers bargains to consumers and returns a percentage of proceeds back to the community.

Master Police Officer Christopher Tidmore said that the Leesburg Police signed on about six weeks ago in order to liquidate asset forfeiture items and or unclaimed property.  

“The department is working to utilize our building space as we cannot hold items indefinitely,” Tidmore said, adding that the department does its best to identify owners of found, unclaimed or recovered property. If an owner can’t be located, they turn to the website, he said.

Property Room began collecting items from Leesburg police to sell on its auction site on May 29. Pickup of property will be conducted on an as-needed basis. To learn more, visit Property Room online.