Legally Buy Stolen Goods
At these prices it’s a steal
Usually when someone offers you stolen goods, you phone the police, but when it’s the police doing it, what then? Get a bargain is the answer, and without the criminal record! Don’t worry it’s perfectly legal and is a growing trend amongst many police forces.
When they have recovered the goods from sticky fingered criminals they try their best to reunite the goods with their original owners, but what if they can’t be found? Well now the police have started holding online auctions at a site called Bumblebee auctions to try and re-home these goods, and often at bargain prices.
Not all of the forces are doing it and most of the time you have to collect the items from your local police station, but there are a few that will post them to you. Most of the goods, as you will imagine, are the stereotypical stolen items such as jewellery, electricals, camera equipment and such like, but there are a few oddities, like garden hoses and statues.
It’s not quite ebay as you do have to register and pay a small joining fee of £1.99 so they can verify your card and make sure you are who you say you are, this can take up to three days to process but it’s only a 1 off payment and the savings can more than make up for it.
The amount of goods vary from time to time as do the places that are registering items but more and more police forces are joining as their evidence rooms start to overflow. If there is nothing to suit your tastes this week or nothing in your area, the chances are something will pop up soon. As it’s the police and not a local jeweller the prices and descriptions can sometimes be a bit hit or miss, with “white metal” used to cover themselves, however if there is a hallmark they will usually say, and they can tell costume jewellery when they see it.
Unlike ebay where I will have to sit eagle eyed for the last 2 min trying not to get outbid by someone putting a sneaky high bid in on the last few seconds, if you bid in the last 10 minutes the auction will automatically give the person you have just outbid an extra few minutes to try and up their bid.
Although it’s not for everyone to buy stolen goods, some might get a vicarious thrill out of owning these once elicit items, and if nothing else it’s an interesting story to tell about your new necklace or ring. They do however (just as a forewarning) let you know that if the item you’re bidding on is spotted by the original owner and claimed, you get your money back, but not the item. I personally would love to hear a tale of someone browsing to replace a lost item and coming across the one that was stolen in the first place, but then I’m a sucker for a happy ending.
