Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 31, 1993 TAG: 9308310016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Outside, the August sun is brutal as Lahar and an assistant hurriedly try to complete their job.
He admits the work is tedious, and the atmosphere is a little bleak.
"It's like a big cave, frankly," he said. "It's cool, but not as cool as a cave. You feel like a caveman."
Lahar is neither salesman nor caveman. He's a Roanoke police officer - a lieutenant - assigned to the services division.
Lahar accepts the fact that his job is not filled with the glamour of which television series are made. Outside the department, there's not much recognition for those who manage the department's property room.
But without Lahar and his cohorts, the department would be overrun with items it couldn't use, and street cops would have a harder time winning their cases.
When evidence is the fuel that drives the machine, someone has to be responsible for keeping track of it.
At some point, someone also has to be responsible for disposing of it, particularly when criminal cases are resolved.
That's where Lahar and his co-workers come in. On Sept. 14 at Victory Stadium, they will hold an auction to dispose of items that were seized from criminals, used as evidence or simply abandoned.
It will be the first such auction in three years. In 1990, the city's storage facility was flooded, and more than 100 bicycles were destroyed.
"I'm willing to do it," Lahar said matter-of-factly about the auction. "It's required by law. It's part of the job."
Since the flood, the Police Department has been gathering items including tool boxes, car stereos, milk cans, crutches, wheelchairs and even a sink.
The auction will include no guns. They get melted.
At first, the department sees if it can use the property and save taxpayers money. If it can't, it sells the property, and the proceeds go to the city's general fund.
Before the property can be sold, the department places an advertisement in the newspaper and posts a list in the courthouse of items to be sold.
Letters are sent to any property owners whose identities are known.
Those procedures protect those who have a legitimate claim to the property. As a veteran of three auctions, Lahar is aware that sometimes people try to circumvent the system.
"We had `shoppers' in the past," Lahar said, referring to people who tried to make claims on property they never owned.
Those claims usually fall through when police check the records and find no missing-property report.
Lahar said that he'll have to recruit three or four officers to help him on auction day. He's already had to group the several hundred items in clusters to make sure the auctioneer can get through them in one day.
The officers will have to hustle the property to and from an auction table for about 60 bidders to see.
"It's just plain work," he said.
But Lahar says he's not the type to complain. His fellow officers say he simply does what the job requires.
"He'd be the first one through the door," said Sgt. Guy Hurley, who worked for Lahar when he supervised patrol officers. "He just didn't say, `Do it.' He'd say, `Follow me.' "
by CNB