Nearly 50 unclaimed bikes, including some that haven't been ridden for almost five years, will be auctioned today to raise money for the UNM Police Department.
"These bikes were just confiscated or abandoned," said Monica Sanchez, a data entry operator in the records division of the UNM Police Department.
Most of the bikes were either recovered by police or confiscated by the University's Physical Plant department.
The auction aligns with today's statewide activities for Bike and Walk to School Day.
The auction is also meant to raise campus awareness of the importance of registering bikes with campus police so they can be returned if stolen or confiscated by the Physical Plant.
"Especially the nice ones," said Karen Bowman, an operator in the records division who is organizing today's bidding.
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Since 1994, UNMPD has registered more than 1,000 bikes, Bowman estimated.
The bike auction begins at 10 a.m. and concludes at about 1 p.m.
"When we leave at 1 o'clock, we don't want to bring anything back," Bowman said.
The auction is being conducted in a silent format. Bikes will be displayed with bidding logs attached to them. Each bike will go to the highest bidder.
The bicycles will be auctioned in thirds. Bidding on each group will begin at 10 a.m. The first group's bidding will conclude at 11, the second will end at 11:30 and the final portion of bikes will stop receiving bids at noon.
Auction participants must be present when organizers announce who has the highest bid, or else the bike will be sold to the second-highest bidder, Bowman said.
The range of bikes and styles is broad.
Some bikes are ready to be ridden away after being bought, while others are missing tires, gears or seats.
"Some of these bike are pretty messed up," Sanchez said Tuesday while overseeing the bikes which were displayed outside Hokona Hall in a last-ditch effort to draw out their original owners before being sold today.
Among the 50 bikes are 10-speeds, 24-speeds, mountain bikes and street bikes; almost all are in men and women's styles. Some still have the locks that were cut off by the Physical Plant dangling from their frames.
Minimum auction bids range from $5 to $25.
In past auctions, campus police have netted around $1,000, but Bowman said today's auction could raise much more because there are more bikes up for bidding.
All bikes purchased at the auction can be registered with UNMPD free of charge and engraved with the purchaser's drivers license number to make the bike easier to track if it is lost or stolen.
UNM police will accept cash and personal check for auction items. Call campus police at 277-0081 to register a bike.
