Middletown News CT By PENNY RIORDAN Staff Writer SOUTHINGTON -- It seems the early bird caught the bike Saturday morning at the Southington police station on Lazy Lane, as nearly 50 bicycles were unofficially claimed long before the official beginning of the sale at 9 a.m. "When we pulled up, there were so many people already out here eyeing the bikes they wanted," said Sgt. Lowell DePalma. The bikes were part of the annual police department tag sale, where officers clean out a year’s worth of lost or abandoned items found all over town. Because a local radio station advertised the start time at 8 a.m., many people arrived before the official start-time at 9 a.m. and were staking claim on the bikes and other items such as CDs, backpacks, hand tools and power tools. By 10 a.m., all that was left for the latecomers were a few rusty mail boxes, some lawn ornaments, a water cooler and three textbooks titled "Abnormal Psychology," "Statistics for Managers" and "Public Speaking." Tim Knibbs showed up after 10 a.m., hoping for a bargain bike, but left with a $1 bargain on a "Barney" video for his daughter. "I guess this is all that’s left," he said matter-of-factly as he paid for his video and walked away. A makeshift sign at the gate said "bikes sold out" in large blue letters but a few people cruised slowly by the back lot of the year-old police station on Lazy Lane, looking disappointedly at the leftovers. The eagerness of Southington residents to reclaim other’s lost bikes was a success for the police department, who had to clean out two years of inventory following the department’s move to their new headquarters. Officers, taken off guard by the early turnout of parents and children eager to take $5 bikes of the department’s hands, said they were disappointed no one showed up to reclaim any of the lost bikes. "We hate to disappoint anybody who showed up and didn’t get a bike," DePalma said while sweeping the parking lot and tidying up around 10:30 a.m. "But truly the sale was a success for us," he added, since the proceeds from the sale every year go towards the department’s pension fun as required by state statute. DePalma estimated roughly a couple hundred dollars was raised from Saturday’s sale.