Stolen Stuff Equals Big Savings

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

--By Jules Newmark

Property Room Auctions
Have you ever wondered what happens to all the items people have on them when they get arrested? The guy on the corner selling watches (real or fake, who knows), the Upper East Side woman who’s been embezzling jewelry from Tiffany & Co. for the last 50 years, or even all the “lost in the mail” Gucci bags? Well look no further and pay full price no more!

You must go to Property Room now and check out this innovative way to recycle new items that were floating around in the law’s offices to be sold by auction to desperate fashionistas like us. The website, started by former police detective Tom Lane in 1999, was created to help law enforcement figure out what to do with recovered goods. By working with over 1,300 agencies in the US, the website is spattered with bling, Apple Powerbooks, Calvin Klein, and even items like a personal alcohol detector – gee I wonder who was hoping to be the original owner? Without being able to find out who the rightful owner is, the otherwise left-for-no-one goods are collected, catalogued, photographed and tested to make sure each item is accounted for. How can you go wrong finding a Birkin at a police auction?

Sounds so riskay... okay, so maybe they don’t have Hermes, but it’s worth a look, at least for the Gucci! With gas prices soaring by the minute and the economy in the doldrums, this is a sure fire way to stay fashionable, while saving a buck. I think it’s definitely environmentally positive too – I mean, where would all those Fendi sunglasses, Dolce & Gabbana t-shirts and iPods go to decompose? Certainly not in the hands of the fashionable and fearless like us!

So do something totally different when you get off work tonight, go on Property Room and live out the dreams of forgotten designer items for goodness sake – sounds like a divine intervention from yet another reality series evening to me.
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Jules Newmark
Jules Newmark is a contributing writer for Adventures in the Stiletto Jungle. Jules is currently based in sun drenched San Diego, California, where she works, and works the scene, as a modeling agent. Jules's beauty must-haves include mascara by Dior, perfume by Calvin Klein, and a really good sunblock.