MISSOULA – The Missoula Police Department held one of their stolen missing bike auctions Tuesday with a little bit of a twist.
MPD’s collects a lot of unclaimed stolen or missing bicycles and when they don’t have any more room for them they hold an auction to clear some of them out.
“Were just trying to get them out there and allow people to come and view them and see if they like something if they do they can bid on it,” Missoula Police Department spokesman Sgt. Travis Welsh said. “It’s been a pretty successful program.”
Gardners Auction Service has been conducting the auction for MPD for decades now
“We’ve been doing bike auctions for the city of Missoula for probably 35 years now its been a long working relationship with the Police department and the city of Missoula and we will continue to sell bikes for them,” Gardners Auction Service owner Randy Kearns said.
There is one change in the way this bike auction operates, it will be entirely online which Kearns thinks will mean more bids.
“Well obviously the online is going to generate more potential buyers then it is those that walk through the door, so we are not relying upon 50 or 100 or 150 people on-site here at our location. We now have opened up the option to several hundred if not thousands of potential bidders,” Kearns added.
All of the bikes not chosen by Gardner’s for auction will be donated to Freecycles in Missoula.
