John Hutterer wrote:
> Brandon,
>
> You may be right, but there are other possibilities.
>
> The rig might have been confiscated by the Sheriff or by some Federal
> agency. (Non-payment of taxes, hauling contraband, pick a crime) If it was
> confiscated by a Federal agency, I believe that the Sheriffs department
> could have obtained it for a minimal fee. I just attended a GSA sale here in
> Minnesota. The sale was held at the State Surplus Center. I noticed that all
> of the vehicles that were sold had prices written on them. I asked what they
> were for. The prices written on the vehicles were what another government
> agency (Sheriffs Department, Municipality, Civil Defense, Department of
> Natural Resources, etc.) would have had to have paid for the vehicles, if
> they had purchased them from the State Surplus Center.
This was a so-called "warehouse charge"
> Since no authorized
> agencies wanted these vehicles, the GSA was called to send in some
> auctioneers to get rid of them at a public auction.
>
> An M36, drop-side, 2 1/2 ton cargo truck in absolutely mint condition sold
> for about $2200.00 at auction. The same truck would have cost the local
> Sheriff $2000.00 to buy from the Surplus Center. The guy who bought the
> truck for $2200.00 can sell it tomorrow for as much as the market will
> allow. A government agency that buys the same truck from the Surplus Center
> would have to keep it for 3 years before they are allowed to sell it.
This was a so-called "compliance item" and requires a property tag at the user's
agency and annual inventories. The requirement is usually 1 to 3 years and is
for big capital items.
> Maybe
> they would get their $2000.00 back...and maybe not. The three year figure is
> something that I found out about because I thought that I could get a better
> deal on a surplus vehicle if I convinced a buddy of mine at the local city
> shops to buy one in the name of the city, and then sell it to me. The only
> way that he could legally do that was if I was willing to wait three years
> to take possession of the vehicle. Thanks, but I guess that I'll just bid
> for one, like everybody else has to.
>
> I'm not saying that irregularities, improprieties, and down-right thievery
> doesn't happen when government property gets transferred from one agency to
> another. I don't think that you can just automatically assume that it does.
> Just because the Sheriffs Department had enough pride to paint their name on
> the side of the tractor doesn't necessarily mean that they are dishonest. I
> would hope that the citizens of the county would be smart enough to figure
> it out, if the local Sheriff was running a military surplus store as a side
> business.
Some years ago, pallet loads of Sealectro timer-switches and Korean War vintage
16mm aircraft gun cameras were seen at a local State Surplus store. They were
apparently sold to a local technical high school, and subsequently showed up at
local, mail order, surplus dealers. Draw your own conclusions
John
> My .02 worth.
>
> John
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brandon K. [mailto:c322348@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 9:45 AM
> To: mil-veh@mil-veh.org
> Subject: Re: [MV] A few more pictures
>
> This is an easy one. Your taxes paid for a brand new
> rig to haul off DRMO surplus. The police department
> collects the surplus to sell later. Either the money
> ends up in the department budget, or the stuff turns
> up missing one day and can be found for sale at the
> local surplus store (clothing and web gear).
>
> This is a big scam in Kalifornia. It's hard to get any
> good equipment out of the DRMO system anymore. A
> friend of mine is curator of a large registered
> non-profit museum, and as such, the museum can draw
> items from the surplus system...but only after law
> enforcement picks over it first. He can't even get a
> used tail light bulb for a HMMWV because anyone with a
> badge can walk in and take parts. He's even caught law
> enforcement stealing parts off of items he has been
> awarded.
>
> Law enforcement has new ways of getting budget now. If
> they aren't confiscating cars from pot smokers,
> they're liberating Deuce-and-a-halfs from DRMO.
>
> Brandon
>
> --- Wayne Harris <papercu@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > HiO List I was back at the DRMO today and a truck
> > from Lake County
> > Sheriff[Florida] was loading up. Look under "Really
> > Cool Police Truck" it
> > was a nice truck and trailer but I would like to
> > know how they justify the
> > cost to operate that rig and just how many
> > deuces[and other things] are they
> > hauling off.:-))
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 05 2001 - 00:40:37 PDT