OVIEDO, Fla. — Cities, sheriff's offices and even school districts hope to raise thousands of dollars over the weekend by auctioning off their old stuff. The sheriff's office will be selling everything from police cars to sports equipment.
George Gideon expects more than 1,000 people to check out the massive lot of used equipment Saturday. It's mostly equipment bought with tax money.
Gideon's Auction House in Zellwood (see map) has become the go-to site for cities, sheriff's offices, even school districts around Central Florida looking to sell off outdated equipment.
"They're going to generate more money coming out here to the auction, selling all their items," Gideon said.
Friday's auction will be the biggest so far this year, involving agencies from Volusia County to Lake County. The range of items is absolutely astonishing. In one corner, you have old pitching machines taken from public ball fields in Osceola County and in another is a white Porsche Boxster seized in U.S. bankruptcy court. There are backhoes, outdated computers and even old police motorcycles.
The city of Oviedo, for example, has eight of its old police and fire SUVs on the block.
"How much would a city like that stand to make for items like that?" WFTV reporter George Spencer asked.
"They're gonna probably sell somewhere around $30-$35,000," Gideon replied.
Often, that profit goes right back into the general fund budget to help buy new versions of the equipment being sold.
The auction begins at 9:00am Friday. Most cities say they sell off their old equipment only when it becomes more expensive to repair than to replace.
WFTV
