THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay Police Service is going completely digital when it comes to auctioning off seized items.
On Tuesday, police chief Sylvie Hauth informed the Thunder Bay Police Services Board that the service will only be using an online auction website and no longer holding physical auctions to sell items.
The Police Service began testing the website GovDeals late last year. In the past, two in-person auctions were held throughout the year at the Balmoral Police headquarters.
Moving the auction online has proven successful so far. Since the Police Service began using it last November, 88 items have been sold and $5,700 brought in to the Service. Thunder Bay Police pay GovDeals seven per cent of the final bidding price on all items sold.
“The reason why it is so successful is there is next to no overhead,” said Thunder Bay Police Service spokesperson, Scott Paradis. “With physical auctions, there was weeks to set up, an auctioneer, a lot of work and overtime to get everything ready. By the time you sold all those items, a significant percentage of that money brought in was overhead.”
There are currently 16 items up for bid on the website. The majority of items that have been purchased are bikes and at times several bikes will be auctioned off in a group. According to Paradis, the police service has been able to sell more bikes in just one month than it did in two years through physical auctions.
Bids are open to anyone in the world, however, Thunder Bay Police do not ship any items and people are responsible to pick up their purchases.
And for those who may have had an item stolen, it pays to check in with the auction, because it just might show up.
One individual saw a stolen bike up for auction and was able to provide proof of purchase to police and had the bike returned.
“If that was a physical auction that never would have happened,” Paradis said.
Items up for auction by the Thunder Bay Police Service can be viewed by visiting GovDeals.ca and searching for Thunder Bay.
