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OREM -- Orem police will be auctioning about 150 items from the department's evidence room.
The items were recovered as lost or stolen, and police will sell them to the public Saturday.
Police say they would much rather return the items to the rightful owners. But since few people keep track of serial numbers and report items as stolen, police have no idea who they belong to and have no choice but to clear them out of the evidence room.
Sgt. Craig Martinez with the Orem Police Department said, "We've got about 70 to 80 bikes, we've got electronics, GPS receivers, brand new high-end clothing, leather jackets, snowboards, longboards -- we've got it all."
The evidence room at the Orem Police Department also has a big assortment of power tools, lawnmowers, snowblowers and more.
Police have recovered the stolen items from burglary rings, mostly thefts from cars and garages. Everything has been sitting at police headquarters for more than a year and a half -- some of it for years.
Officers say they could have returned almost all of it had the owners reported it stolen and given police the serial numbers.
"We've tried. We tried to identify the owners of a lot of this stuff," Martinez said. "The problem is, a lot of times when people have their property stolen, they don't have the serial numbers."
If that happens, the item shows up in a database of stolen property that police departments around the country can access.
"If your items are ever stolen, we'll be able to get it back to you when we do recover it because all of this property at some point in time did belong to somebody, we just can't find out who," Martinez said.
This is the first time that Orem police have held an auction. According to state law they have to keep it at least 90 days and then have to sell it at auction.
The proceeds go in the city's general fund.
The auction will be held Saturday, March 27, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Orem Police Department at 95 E. Center Street in Orem.
E-mail: spenrod@ksl.com
