(Note: Why don't police departments have such auctions between themselves, especially for items (the police car emergency lights and two planes) that can be used by criminals and drug runners? I'd think that a nationwide auction, where police departments could bid for such items, would bring higher prices for these items and keep them out of questionable hands!)

October 12, 2003

By Alison Beshur

The Brownsville Herald

1135 E. Van Buren

Brownsville, TX 78520

956-542-4301 or 1-800-488-4301

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com

To submit a Letter to the Editor: tgarcia@link.freedom.com

Brownsville, Texas - Francisco Torres is now the proud owner of nine sets of police-car emergency lights.

After agreeing to pay $8.50 for each one, the 53-year-old self-employed mechanic from Brownsville stood back from a crowd winding through two tents of desks, computers, shelves, mattresses, police surveillance equipment and scanner batteries.

"I better stay away," Torres said, nodding his head from left to right. "I wasted too much already."

Torres was one of the first bidders to take ownership of city-surplus items. More than 200 turned out for the city's annual auction Saturday morning at Veteran's Park on Central Boulevard.

"I don't know really, I just bid on them," Torres said about his purchase. "I don't smoke and I don't drink."

The city of Brownsville raked in more than $20,000 for the sale of broken desks, cannibalized computers and torn furniture.

"I won't pay for them to haul it away," joked Marisela Rebollo about a deteriorated brown leather coach. That item sold for $1.

But Rebollo was ecstatic about her purchase of a wheelchair ramp for her mini-van.

She paid $15 for the ramp worth at least $1,500, she said. Later, she met up with a Bingo-acquaintance, who agreed to give her a deal installing the ramp.

"I needed it real bad," said Rebollo, an addiction counselor in Brownsville.

Pete Bond, owner of Bond & Bond Auctioneers, said selling products at auctions maximizes their potential value. For example, if a bidder gets into a grudge-bidding challenge with a rival buyer, then an item worth $200 might get sold for $600.

"You have a chance to make a whole lot more. There's a little bit of greed in this," Bond said, taking a break from repetitive chanting.

Typically, Bond sells between 60 and 100 items per hour, depending on the purchasing speed of the audience.

Brownsville's Purchasing Manager Paul Calapa said this year's event included two years of surplus equipment. Last year's auction only included vehicles, because city offices were being relocated.

"We will sell everything," Calapa said before the auction. "And Monday, someone will call me and say, "I have something for the auction," and it will start all over again."

Two city-owned DC-3 airplanes are still available after bidders didn't meet the minimum reserve of $20,000.

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