DA TO AUCTION OFF ALLEGED DRUG DEALERS' CARS

In the past, the Bucks County district attorney's drug forfeiture auctions
have had some interesting items for sale.

Saturday's sale at the former Thiokol property at Five Points in Bristol
Township will feature some very expensive cars with bidding that could go
quite high.

Alleged drug dealer John Cern formerly owned four of the 35 vehicles for
sale by District Attorney Diane Gibbons. Cern took his own life the day of
his preliminary hearing in September.

Even though he was never convicted, Gibbons said the confiscated property
should be sold as part of the drug forfeiture auction. Cern's family and
Gibbons came to an agreement on which seized property would be sold. The
family was able to keep rental property that wasn't used in the alleged
drug deals.

Two of Cern's four vehicles are 1978 Chevrolet Corvette Indy Pace Cars.
Only 6,052 of these cars were made. The special Corvette was the subject of
a pricing frenzy in 1978 with the then-$13,000 cars selling for two and
three times their sticker price.

Both pace cars are silver and black. One has 331 actual miles and the
factory window sticker still glued to the window. The minimum bid is
$20,000. The other has traveled 14,055 miles and has a minimum bid of $12,500.

The two other cars seized from Cern are a white 1957 Chevy made into a
limousine with a minimum bid of $15,000 and a blue and white 1997 Dodge
Viper coupe, with a V-10 engine and 866 miles on the odometer. It has a
minimum bid of $30,000.

Cern's other cars, including a Lamborghini Countach, will be sold later in
the year, said Chief of Detectives Frank Dykes.

For the economy-minded, there are numerous small cars with high mileage and
minimum bids of $25. Among them is a 1982 Toyota Corolla with nearly
213,000 miles.

Since 1986, the county has seized more than $5 million worth of property
from drug dealers. The proceeds from sales of convicted dealers' cars,
houses, jewelry, boats, motorcycles and personal belongings are put into an
interest-bearing account and used for future drug investigations. All
merchandise is sold as is.

Merchandise can be inspected tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday
from 9 a.m. to noon. All bids are sealed.

The auction begins at 1 p.m. Saturday. In the event of duplicate bids in
the exact amount for the same item, the successful bidder will be
determined by the earliest time-stamped bid.

Each bid of more than $500 must be signed, sealed and placed in a bid
envelope with a personal check, certified check, cashier's check,
treasurer's check or money order drawn upon a Pennsylvania bank equal to a
minimum of 10 percent of your bid.

For more information, call 215-348-6300.