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(1) If after 60 days from the day the personal property valued at $25 or more (other than any impounded motor vehicle) comes into the possession of the police department, the owner, conditional vendor, mortgagee or other person interested therein cannot be found after due diligence as herein set out, then the chief of police shall cause to be posted in three public places in the city and published at least once in a newspaper printed and published in the county, a notice generally describing the property, the address and telephone number where the property can be claimed, the final date before which the property may be claimed, and a statement in substantially the following form: “The Eugene Police Department has in its physical possession the unclaimed personal property described below. If you have any ownership interest in any of that unclaimed property, you must file a claim with the Eugene Police Department within 30 days from the date of publication of this notice, or you will lose your interest in that property.”

(2) If the owner, conditional vendor, mortgagee or other person interested therein applies to the chief of police for the return of the property before a sale has taken place, and submits to the chief of police satisfactory evidence of his or her interest and pays the costs in the seizing and holding of the motor vehicle or other personal property, the chief of police, being satisfied with the claim, shall surrender the same to the claimant.

(3) If no person appears and establishes ownership of or interest in the property prior to the date set forth in the notice, the city shall sell the property pursuant to section 2.840, or upon approval of the city manager shall transfer the property to public use by entering it on the city’s fixed asset inventory. If the personal property is a weapon described in chapter 4 of this code declared unlawful to possess by state law, it shall be destroyed by the chief of police.

(4) Notwithstanding sections 2.835(1) and (3), if a property owner waives ownership interest in property that is in the police department’s possession for more than 60 days, upon the expiration of the 60 days, the city shall sell the property pursuant to section 2.840, discard the property that has no monetary value, or upon approval of the manager transfer the property to public use by entering it in the city’s fixed asset inventory. When personal property is not seized as evidence, the 60 days begins to run when the property is placed in a Lane County Jail locker by a Eugene police officer or when it is taken by the police during an arrest. When personal property is seized as evidence, the 60 days begins to run when the case is fully adjudicated.

(Section 2.835 amended by Ordinance No. 17187, enacted October 7, 1974, Ordinance No. 18789, enacted May 13, 1981; Ordinance No. 19170, enacted August 8, 1983, Ordinance No. 19462, enacted April 13, 1987; administratively amended by Ordinance No. 20113, enacted April 6, 1998, effective May 6, 1998; amended by Ordinance No. 20464, enacted October 25, 2010, effective November 29, 2010; and amended by Ordinance No. 20485, enacted January 23, 2012, effective February 24, 2012.)