Stolen bikes, obsolete equipment up for grabs in Kamloops online auction | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Stolen bikes, obsolete equipment up for grabs in Kamloops online auction

The City of Kamloops will host an auction later this month, offering up stolen items and its own obsolete goods, starting May 25, 2023.
Image Credit: Team Auctions/City of Kamloops

Buyers can soon look to the City of Kamloops for deals on old equipment and stolen goods.

For the second year in a row, the city is hosting an online auction for some of its ageing equipment and for stolen items unclaimed by their original owners.

"Last year there were a lot of people that expressed they loved it and they got good deals," the city's purchasing and inventory manager Ray Sison said.

Items are still being posted to the auction site, but it already hosts more than 100 bikes, along with two old city fleet vehicles and construction equipment.

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Bidding starts, May 25, with viewing dates at Valleyview Arena between May 23 and 27.

Three people have already come forward attempting to claim their stolen bikes from the auction. Sison didn't have a specific value, but said they were worth thousands of dollars when purchased. The original owners were then put in contact with Kamloops RCMP to prove the bikes were theirs.

It's not just bikes for sale.

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Along with the ageing fleet vehicles and obsolete city equipment, the auction will include some of the tools, and at least one generator, seized by either police or bylaws over the past year. If they aren't claimed, they'll be sold in the auction later this month.

"I'm hoping this is not a regular thing," Sison said. "We don't like selling lost or stolen items."

Putting up seized or ageing government equipment for auction isn't new, but it's only the second time the city has launched its own auction to offload the items.

He said they traditionally used the provincial program BC Bid, but that requires posting each item individually rather than selling everything in one effort.

"We also do have a lot of obsolete and dead stock included in the auction as well. It's really just house cleaning," Sison said. "Due to the administrative cost of posting everything piece by piece, doing it in one mass auction is the better approach."

Some auction items were stolen in a break-in at Valleyview Arena last year, including two of the more expensive mountain bikes. The city had security watch over the site over the course of the auction and Kamloops RCMP patrolled the area more frequently to deter potential thieves, Sison told iNFOnews.ca last year.

None of the auction items are at Valleyview Arena currently and likely won't be moved there until viewings later this month.

More information about the auction can be found here.


To contact a reporter for this story, email Levi Landry or call 250-819-3723 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

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