“ANNUAL LANCASTER COUNTY DRUG TASK FORCE PUBLIC AUCTION Saturday, May 18, 2013 9:00 a.m. Location: LANCASTER COUNTY PARK BLDG. , 950 ESHELMAN MILL ROAD, LANCASTER, PA. DOORS OPEN AT 8:00 A.M. FOR INSPECTION VEHICLES TO BE SOLD AT 12:30 P.M. PURCHASED VEHICLES MUST BE REMOVED FROM PARK PROPERTY BY 4:00 P.M. ON THE DAY OF THE AUCTION.”

It was a dark and cloudy Saturday … a good time to head out to the annual public auction of merchandise that’s netted from drug arrests in the county.

The Lancaster County Drug Task Force Website says, “County Non-monetary assets such as jewelry, electronic equipment, and vehicles are sold at an annual auction held at the Lancaster County Central Park.  The proceeds of the auction and any forfeited monetary assets are placed into an escrow account as provided for by P.S. 42 Pa. C.S. §6801.  These funds are available for use by the District Attorney’s Office to purchase equipment or fund investigations that are directly drug related.”

Auctions provide great people-watching and it’s always a prurient sense of interest to see what’s being sold; how much it goes for and who buys it.

Besides, there’s always auction food. Another prurient delight!

So here are some pictures from the auction.

Auction after thoughts:

A lot of jewelry, Nike footwear and designer bags were sold. And the buyers were paying what we thought were fairly high prices.

There were a dozen or so big-screen; flat-screen TVs.

There were also a dozen or so “flat-brimmed” logo caps that were sold. Some of these sold for more than they do in stores.

A fair number of small-power tools were auctioned.

The last time we were at the sale was in 2006; seemed to be more people attending yesterday.

Most of the vehicles that were auctioned were high-mileage ones. Several of them had expensive over-sized wheels that may have been worth more than the vehicles. Some of them, too, went for relatively high prices.

More than a few of the vehicles had black-tinted windows.

A bunch of the folks who attended were “just-looking,” too.

Some folks were disappointed because the auctioneers delayed the auctioning of the vehicles to 1:00.  That’s a cause for concern and something the County ought to correct for next year – the legal advertising that was published in the newspaper of general circulation on May 10, 2013 stated that the vehicles would be sold at 12:30 pm. “Free-wheeling” auctioneers must adhere to the promise and intent of the legal notice.