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Trying to drive a bargain
By AMY HERDY, Times Staff Writer TAMPA -- They look past the deflated tires and dented bodies and see possibilities. A set of wheels instead of a ride on the bus. A stroke of good luck from someone else's misfortune. At the S 34th Street impound lot for the Tampa Police Department, vehicles of every sort that have been confiscated from their owners after a crime are auctioned to the highest bidder at the end of each month. Cars have sold for as little as $1, but typically go for $50 or $100. Amid the junked Chevrolets and Fords, an occasional gem such as a Lexus can be found -- if the cops on the vice squad have not already ruined the engine while using the car for undercover work. "This is not the place you go for a warranty," said Dudley Carr, 55, a general contractor who traveled from Bradenton and joined about 50 others for Friday morning's event. "It's a crapshoot." Although the cars are lined up before the auction with open hoods like so many yawning mouths, would-be owners are not allowed to test drive. They can't even test start. Some of these cars, they find out after the sale, do not even have keys. "Two-thirds of these cars will be towed out of here," said Carr, who has gone to "one or two" of these auctions and bought one Ford pickup that "turned out to be not a bad little truck." Your best bet, he said, is a car that's been impounded on the spot, right on the street. "That means it was running when (the driver) got out," he said. How to find such a car? Look for lots of personal items left behind, Carr said. A cup of coffee in the console is a good sign. And indeed, many of the cars look as if their owners merely stepped away for a moment -- though most were likely taken away in handcuffs. "Each car has its own story," said Vaughn Ritz, an evidence specialist for TPD for 32 years. Before the cars are put up for sale, the Police Department notifies the owner, any lien holders and the insurance company with a registered letter, Ritz said. The department also puts notices in the newspaper of the upcoming auction. Although the Police Department typically holds cars for at least 90 days before they are sold, Ritz said, some end up sitting in the impound lot for more than a year, eventually sprouting grass out of their wheels. Their histories are varied. Ritz nodded toward a powder-blue Ford Escort wagon with a smashed front end and cracked windshield. "Looks like he hit a pole, and his head on the windshield," he guessed. A check of its records confirmed that the driver of the car had indeed crashed and then fled the scene. The driver of a whale-sized taupe Pontiac Parisienne left bags of clothes, along with a book, The Bondage Breaker -- Overcoming Negative Thoughts, Irrational Feelings and Habitual Sins on the dashboard before being arrested for possession of cocaine. The records for a dark blue Mazda 929 show that it once held a lawn mower, weed trimmer, tool box and toy gun before its driver was busted for burglary. At the time of the auction, only the toy gun, a realistic-looking piece of black plastic, remained. "When they have a crowd here," said Tampa Officer Fred Arnold III, gesturing to opposite ends of the lot as he spoke, "and lingerers there, stuff disappears." The prize of the day: a 1996 blue GMC Yukon. Taken from its owners after their arrest for trafficking in cocaine, the Yukon caused a buzz at the auction. Its contents -- five nitrous oxide canisters, one motorcycle helmet and miscellaneous toys and clothes -- were gone. It had 144,000 miles on it and a trailer hitch, and its merits were debated. "With a trailer hitch, chances are the engine's blown," guessed Scott Yakowenko, 43, of east Tampa, who thought about bidding for the Yukon before he left early. The last item to be sold, the Yukon brought a flurry of bids before its new owner, a car dealer, claimed it for $7,100. After the sale, the owner went to start the engine, which repeatedly died. He finally called a wrecker and had it towed. - Amy Herdy can be reached at 226-3386 or at herdy@sptimes.com.
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