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The West Salem Police Department’s bike sale two weeks ago was so successful that many of the 150 to 200 people who showed up had to be turned away.

The event, held June 21, was intended to give people the opportunity to purchase a bicycle inexpensively while freeing up storage space for the police department. However, Police Chief Charles Ashbeck had no idea the sale would generate such interest, and with only 38 bikes available, many who came out left without a bike.

“This sale was intended to get cheap, registered bicycles out to families that needed them, (and) I believe we succeeded at reaching that goal,” Ashbeck said. “I am grateful that there was such a great community response, although with the greater response came disappointment by a few that could not buy a bicycle due to selling out so quickly.”

The bicycles, mostly adult bikes, were “abandoned” property collected between 2004 and 2007. The police department stores the unclaimed property, but every so often some will be disposed to make room.

Ashbeck said he thought it would be beneficial for both the police department and the public to sell the bikes instead of throwing them away. The bikes were divided into three categories — those to be used for parts, those in fair conditions and those in good condition — and the price ranged from $5 to $15.

The event was scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to noon, but Ashbeck said people began showing up a little after 7 a.m. Officers had started taking the bikes out of the storage shed at 7 a.m. to put them on display, but those who showed up early started picking their bikes. And with so many people, officers started selling the bikes at about 7:30 a.m.

By 8:15 a.m., all the bikes were sold.

“I would like to apologize to all the people that showed up at 8 o’clock and discovered most of the bikes were already sold,” Ashbeck said. “Unfortunately, I believe the circumstances would have still been the same for those people even if we didn’t start selling until 8 o’clock because the people that showed up early grabbed a bike and hung onto it. Thus the people at 8 o’clock still wouldn’t have gotten a bike.”

Ashbeck noted that an individual with a trailer also came early and bought five bikes. Ashbeck said, in retrospection, there maybe should have been a limit.

“In hindsight, I probably should have set a limit to two bikes per family,” he said. “I honestly thought we were going to have trouble getting rid of the bikes, so I didn’t give too much thought ahead of time about setting limits.”

The event did raise $335, and Ashbeck hopes to use the money to purchase new bikes for police officers for community patrolling. With the success of the bike sale, Ashbeck said the West Salem Police Department will likely hold a similar event in the future; the police department collects about 15 bikes a year that go unclaimed.