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A high-priced car, seized more than two and a half years ago by the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office, is being auctioned on eBay again, after the first purchaser backed out because of a battery issue, authorities said. The auction ends Thursday afternoon.
The 2005 Maserati Quattroporte was purchased on eBay by a Kenner man for $33,250 in January. The car, seized from a convicted drug dealer, was sold via the online auction site in January after the state Attorney General's Office gave Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois the OK to do so.
However, problems associated with a dead battery caused deputies to send the car to a Maserati dealership in Houston to be repaired. Several of its parts also needed to be replaced, as they were under recall, police said.
During this time, the original purchaser backed out of the deal, said Terrebonne sheriff's Maj. Malcolm Wolfe. On March 5, the Sheriff's Office put the car back on eBay, with a starting price of $19,000.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the highest bid was $28,001. The website says the car will not go for anything less than $30,000.
Proceeds from the car's sale will be split among the Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney's Office and the local court system. The Sheriff's Office gets 60 percent, the District Attorney's Office 20 percent and the courts 20 percent.
When it was seized, Bourgeois estimated the Maserati's worth at $80,000. In early 2010, he said the value had fallen to $48,000. In mid-2011, during an unsuccessful auction, the Sheriff's Office was requesting bids of at least $30,000.
Despite criticism for holding on to the car for so long, Bourgeois has said he did so in hopes that the national economy would stabilize and it would fetch more money.