Beating the auctioneer?

Press, 8 July 1982, Page 1

Beating the auctioneer?

A young man was caught apparently attempting to pocket one of the items on sale at the police auction of lost and stolen property yesterday. Sergeant J. W. Sawers, of the police property office, said that the man-was spotted just before the auction began with one of the lots, a gold filigree ring of considerable value.

Sergeant Sawers said he strongly suspected that the man was trying to steal the ring. However, the man had given an explanation and he had decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. The man had been put out of the auction with “a stem warning he won’t forget in a while.’?

At the first day of the auction yesterday, more than 300 items on offer brought a total of $10,469, much more than expected, said Mr Mervyn Inwood, a spokesman for the auctioneer the New Zealand, Farmers’ Co-operative Association. The second day today is expected to be even better because the goods are of . better . ityThere were no particular bargains to be had, said Mr Inwood, and in the early stages some of the prices had been .ridiculously high. For instance, an undistinguished jacket and bag had sold for $75, much more than they were worth. The auction is the biggest the police have held in

Christchurch after a cleanout of the police property office. More than 700 lots — including a motor-cycle, cas-sette-recorders, stereo amplifiers, tools, watches, jewellery, seven paintings, 72 packets of chewing gum, and a Commonwealth Games dollar — have been put up. Everything offered yesterday was sold.

Three persons claimed items they believed belonged to them. One, a cane basket made at Paparua Prison, had been confirmed to belong to the claimant, who had attended only with the intention of buying something. In the other two cases the items had been withdrawn from sale while the police investigated further.

Sergeant Sawers spoke of the “ever-increasing” amount of electrical gear the police were unable to return to owners because of inadequate identifications. “Theserial number is not sufficient because on most items it is just stuck on with sticky tape. Anyone who steals something like a television set dr a cassetterecorder can easily peel if off with a fingernail.

"The police would like people to. identify their property by . some other means either by scratching their name on it somewhere, or using the Lions Club Operation Identification, or something like that.”