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Old patrol cars auctioned in Bradley

By: Randall Higgins
(Contact)

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John Sander

CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Bradley County taxpayers earned $8,150 Saturday at a used car auction.

The 16 vehicles were all Bradley County Sheriff’s Department patrol cars except one van and some Parks and Recreation Department mowing equipment.

Auctioneers John Sanders and Jim Smith, who is also a county commissioner, and their crew conducted the sale at no cost to the county.

“We wanted to help the county as much as we could and not one individual,” Mr. Sanders said.

Sheriff Tim Gobble filmed a video that he posted on the department’s Web site, BradleySheriff.com, with the title “Thanks for the Memories.”

As that old movie song plays in the background, Sheriff Gobble walks among the retired cars and says, “These cars, with over 250,000 miles on each of them, have given Bradley County taxpayers plenty of service.”

But he said the time had come to sell. He said the cars had become gas hogs.

With about a dozen buyers milling around the cars Saturday morning, Mr. Sanders climbed into the auctioneer’s shack on the back of his Crye-Leike truck and spoke over the public address system.

“All sales as is, where is,” he said. “No warranties either written or implied.”

With the preliminaries done, the cars were cranked up one at a time and Mr. Sanders began the auctioneer’s chant, calling for bids. The vehicles were mostly Ford Crown Victoria patrol cars, except one former detective’s car and a Chevy van. Some were 1994 models.

“They brought what they were worth,” Mr. Smith said 30 minutes later when the auction ended and the buyers lined up to write checks or hand over cash. Most of the cars sold for $300 to $400.

The money goes into the county’s general fund.

The cars were replaced earlier this year when the Sheriff’s Department received 13 factory-fresh blue cars, replacing the old white color scheme.

Before that, the cars had been the focus of a budget battle between Mr. Gobble and county officials. Mr. Gobble said the cars had too many miles and were too old to be patrol cars.

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