Stolen Goods Turned Into Cash on the Net for Fla. Cops

ORLANDO, Fla. --

An Orlando warehouse full of stolen goods, including Rolex watches, diamond rings even bathtubs, is being turned into cash for the crime fighters instead of the criminals.

It's perfectly legal to buy those items and they're cheap.

Police departments nationwide sell the goods at propertyroom.com.

The website has five warehouses, including one in Orlando and they're packed with everything from gold chains, to chainsaws.

Inside a warehouse on Hazeltine National Drive, are kitchen sinks, bathtubs, pricey watches, computers, cameras and even insulation, all stolen and all for sale.

"We used to have a saying in police work, ‘They steal everything but the kitchen sink,’ that's not true anymore," website owner Tom Lane said.

Eighty-five percent of all stolen property makes it back to the rightful owners, but what's left police departments have to auction off, by law.

Orlando police and the Orange County Sheriff's Office are among the 2,000 law enforcement agencies that sell items on the site.

The website posts the items for free and gets a cut of the profits.

Tom Lane says because of big ticket items, business is good.

"If you look around here, you can see items stolen right off a construction site, you see kitchen cabinets, bathtubs, washer, dyers, thieves steal everything now days," Lane said.

Buyer, Justin Egan, drove all the way from Tampa to pick up car speakers that he will then turn around and sell himself.

"It's a good deal, you can beat it," he said.

Lane says he has about one million regular bidders all over the country. Bids range from $1 to thousands of dollars and most items are sold in about five days.

Lane says new items come in every day. However, Lane would not say how much the website makes.

Money made by police departments and cities goes back into their general funds.

Copyright 2010 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.