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Rob La Gatta & Mike Baldwin
Seattle Crime ExaminerRob La Gatta is a Seattle-based writer who covers local crime at Seattle Crime Blog (www.seattlecrimeblog.com) with fellow journalist Mike Baldwin. They can be reached at seattlecrime@gmail.com.
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Showing entries for Category: Fraud
Whooo!!!: City Gets Back 0.25 percent of Toilet Investment
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by Rob La Gatta & Mike Baldwin, Seattle Crime Examiner
If you bought a car in 2004 for $30,000, wouldn't it seem appalling if four years later you sold that car for only $75? You'd conisder that a bit of a terrible investment, right?
Well, the City of Seattle knows what that feeling is like after it's $5 million craps of toilets sold for a combined $12,500 on eBay this past week.
Granted the car analogy only works if that car was known by all potential buyers to have been a haven for drug-dealing and five-minute long relationships between complete strangers. But still, you get the point.
I have to admit, the city surprised me by breaking into the five-digit area, but it's still a laugh that these things that just a few years ago were million dollar prizes are now taking in the same amount as scalped Seahawks playoff tickets. Even a few weeks ago the city was asking $89,000 for the toilets, but got no bids.
Apparently that first posting was just to "stir up publicity," and according to City spokesperson Pat Miller, that hunt for publicity worked.
But Miller said the first auction seemed to catch buyers' attention; there were between 25 and 40 bids on each toilet during the second listing, which didn't stipulate a price.
I would love it if things in my life could be considered a success when they only accomplished 0.25 percent of what they were supposed to. Maybe I'll start telling people that I'm a millionaire if you use the City of Seattle success formula.
The city should spend the money it recouped on plaques commemorating the worst buy in city history.
South Sound Speedway swooped up one of the models, so if you want to check it out, feel free to breathe in a little piece of history we'd all rather forget.
Topics: Fraud , High-tech Toilets , City of Seattle , eBay toilet
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