California puts government items up for sale

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Need an airplane engine? How about a traffic light bulb? Or even a nice forklift, slightly used?
They're all up for sale -- just make the check out to the State of California.
Officials are selling these and hundreds of other surplus government items now filling a 100,000-square-foot warehouse.
The massive housecleaning is part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's move to make state government more efficient. The property goes on sale Friday and Saturday to help clean out "the cobwebs of government," Schwarzenegger said.
Most of the items include office furniture, espresso machines and computers from various state agencies and offices. Other items have come to the state through asset forfeitures, such as restaurant equipment, jewelry and baseball cards.
One savvy shopper may even drive away in a 1995 Ford Mustang seized by South Lake Tahoe police.
Fred Aguiar, secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency, said he didn't know how much money the sale would raise. But by ridding itself of so much stuff, the state expected to save money on warehouse rents.
To prepare for the sale, workers on Wednesday sorted boxes of thousands of knives, scissors and nail clippers seized at airport security checkpoints.
"Hand tools, power tools -- I don't know what they were thinking trying to get on a plane with this," Aguiar said.
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