TULSA -- We first brought you this story back in January of the property room with the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office overflowing with personal belongings, clogging up space where vital evidence is stored. They're now trying different methods to clear up the room.
"We have items across the spectrum, if you can imagine it, it’s been in our property room at some point," said Capt. Scott Dean, with Tulsa County Sheriff's Office.
Behind doors to the property room lies purses, back packs, and bags filled with items, mostly unclaimed when the owners were released from jail.
"Anywhere from 70,000 to 100,000 and those range from items that are this big, to items the size of a cabinet," said Capt. Dean.
The property room also contains vital evidence.
"All sorts of things that are out in the community that our deputies encounter and they have to secure it for safe keeping or the evidentiary process," said Capt. Dean.
Officials say the personal items left behind from inmates can take up space needed to store homicide evidence or rate kits.
"You have to go through a very tiered process of making sure that no longer has evidentiary value," said Capt. Dean.
A court date must be set to approve the disposal of these items, which comes out of the taxpayer's pocket.
"They need to have their identification or a disposition sheet from the District Attorney's office that the piece of property is no longer part of the court case," said Capt. Dean.
One of the methods TCSO is using to free up some space in their property room is holding an auction where you can check out more than 700 firearms, but you have to be a federally licensed gun dealer.
"That way we’ll be able to take the firearms to the people who can sell them and we can take the money that we make and put it back into our training budget," said Capt. Dean.
The Sheriff's Office is also planning to partner with the City of Tulsa for another auction of non-firearm items, like tools and vehicles. They're also working to contact potential property owners on Facebook.
The auction will be held this Saturday with a viewing at 8 a.m. and the auction kicking off at 9 a.m. at the Sheriff's Office building downtown.
The property room is open Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. To claim your items call 918-596-5655 or email propertyroom@tcso.org.
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