Need a canoe? Propertyroom.com has one for sale. It's "large" and "green" and will provide "hours of peace" on a lake, starting at $30. 

It sounds like a steal, and maybe it is.

The police auction site has been unloading lost, seized and stolen property to the highest bidder for the past two years on behalf of nearly 180 police departments in 15 states.

Selling everything from small vehicles to beauty products, the site attracted some 1.3 million visitors in 2002 on its way to closing about 48,000 auctions. Bargain hunters and cash-strapped police departments alike agree that the site makes a lot of dollars, and sense. It keeps a commission of 20 to 50 percent and gives the rest back to the police departments that provide the merchandise.

The online auction was launched by a former New York police officer, Thomas Lane, who began working as an investment manager after retiring from the force in 1978. 

Like many market watchers, Lane was impressed with the success of online auction sites like eBay, but he saw room for improvement. Online auctioneers had to spend precious advertising dollars to attract not only buyers but sellers.

"I thought about inventory. Where can you get inventory?" said Lane, the chairman and CEO of propertyroom.com's San Clemente, Calif., parent company Property Bureau.  "I cleaned out the property room when I was a detective."

Such rooms are notorious stockpiles of unclaimed stuff. Anything and everything that can be stolen, shoplifted or simply discarded accumulates there. The law requires that police try to get rid of it all, from jewelry and electronics to copper wire and well-worn sneakers.

"There used to be an expression that 'people will steal everything but the kitchen sink,'" said Lane. "Sometimes they do even steal that."

Certain obvious contraband won't be found on propertyroom.com — guns and other weapons, cars and drugs.  Also, no evidence related to homicides. But for first-stop shopping, check out the "Hot Pursuit Specials" on the front page.  Recently offered was a 25-kilowatt generator "for when standard power isn't available or just doesn't cut it."  Then there's the Top 10 List, including the canoe, black leather women's boots, a traffic light, and a curious assortment of "Magic Towels." 

"Scoot your way around on this Go Ped motorized scooter!" a pitch for one item reads, although further examination reveals that the vehicle is a fixer-upper. "It was tested and it powers on, but please note that the scooter does not move."

Even the choice items can't sell themselves, so such enthusiastic sales pitches are integral, and popular, components of the site, Lane says. "We put a little marketing into it instead of just being bland."

There's nothing bland about these razor blades: "Wow! Two packs of Gillette Trac II blades and one pack of Gillette Trac II Plus blades means all kinds of smoothness for that face!"

Jewelry and electronics make up the bulk of the nearly 2,000 items up for bid in any given week, but a few oddities occasionally appear. "Collectibles and Memorabilia" offers a hodgepodge of coins, stamps, beanie babies and a German bayonet. The latter is offered as a great chance to "step back in time" for "all who have an interest in the equipment of the German army, and to bayonet collectors."

In the "Home and Garden" section, you'll find heaters, fans, furniture and baby monitors, as well as a number of indoor plant lights like the HydroFarm Grow Light for all your, ahem, indoor growing needs. 

And under "Everything Else," choose from a free-for-all of such items as fuel canisters and emergency vehicle lights. "Do you own the coolest club in town?" reads the pitch accompanying one such fixture.  "Make it even hipper by installing this light bar above the dance floor!  These are party flashing lights, with red, white and blue colors, from Jet Sonic."

Nearly all the stuff offered on propertyroom.com sells.  Lane closes 98 percent of the five-day auctions. The savings can be impressive on big-ticket items: a $30,000 boat recently sold for $6,000 and computers go for hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. Some of it even gets returned to its original owners. A few items successfully "stolen back" include class rings, carpet-cleaning machines and a custom-made guitar returned to a Japanese punk rock band member.

Because propertyroom.com picks up the items and handles their sale, it takes a burden off police departments and feeds money into a town's budget.

"I was having to do my own auctions," said Sgt. Russ Hoyser of the Chatham County, Ga., Police Department.  "I might have generated a penny on the dollar."

Between cleaning everything himself, paying labor costs and being constantly "low-balled" by professional flea market workers, Hoyser said he was lucky if he broke even at the old "going once, going twice" auctions. Whereas he used to auction bicycles in groups of five for $15 or $20, he now gets about $25 per bike online after the propertyroom.com commission.

In his next shipment to the Web site, Hoyser plans to send a batch of stolen mint-condition air conditioners, which he expects will fetch $1,000 each.

"It breaks my heart," he said with a laugh.  "I just paid $4,500 for the air conditioner I put in my own house."

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