Police & Sheriff Auctions
New York City Sells 292 Cars Seized for Unpaid Tickets in Five Tow-Yard Auctions This November, Cash Only, Including 53 From 2022 or Newer, Two Teslas and a 1964 Alfa Romeo.
The New York City Sheriff's Office and the city marshals sell vehicles seized for unpaid parking-ticket judgments at the tow yards where they sit, cash on the spot, no keys, no warranty. Five sales are posted for November: Queens on the 4th (60 lots), the Bronx and Queens on the 5th (50 and 63), Brooklyn on the 6th (65) and Staten Island on the 16th (54). More than half of the 292 vehicles carry a lienholder that survives the sale. Here is each sale with its tow yard, the lot lists, what is in them, and the rules that make these the cheapest and riskiest auctions in the city.
NEW YORK — In New York City, a parking ticket that goes unpaid long enough becomes a judgment, and a judgment can put a tow truck under your car. The Department of Finance's marshals and the Sheriff's Office tow the vehicle, the owner has ten business days to pay every judgment on it with penalties and interest, and if nobody pays, the vehicle is sold at a public auction held at the tow yard, with the money going first to the tow and storage charges and then to the tickets. The city runs these every week, borough by borough, and posts the lot lists a few days ahead.
Five are posted for November, 292 vehicles between them, and the lists read like the streets of the city: 2025 Hondas and Nissans with the bank's name still beside them, two Teslas, a 2026 Volkswagen that was barely off the lot, five BMWs in one Queens sale, a 2003 Hummer, a 1964 Alfa Romeo, and a long tail of 2008 Hondas and 2012 Nissans that someone stopped paying tickets on.
A New York City Sheriff's Office car during a vehicle enforcement operation at the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge in July 2024. Photo: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Ray Raimundi), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The five sales
| Date | Time | Tow yard | Lots | 2022 or newer | With a lienholder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed Nov 4 | 9:30 a.m. | Legacy Towing, 131-01 39th Ave, Flushing (Queens) | 60 | 11 | 29 |
| Thu Nov 5 | 10 a.m. | Five J's, 4825 Baldwin St, Bronx | 50 | 6 | 22 |
| Thu Nov 5 | 10 a.m. | 5 J's Towing, 62-02 Beach Channel Dr, Arverne (Queens) | 63 | 15 | 27 |
| Fri Nov 6 | 9:30 a.m. | Breen Brothers Towing, 1908 Shore Pkwy, Brooklyn | 65 | 10 | 38 |
| Mon Nov 16 | 11 a.m. | Breen Brothers, 566 Industrial Loop, Staten Island | 54 | 11 | 36 |
The Flushing sale on November 4, run by auctioneer Courtney Morris for Marshal Richard A. Capuano, is the one with the newest metal: a 2022 BMW with Santander listed as lienholder, a 2025 Honda and a 2025 Nissan with no lien shown, a 2024 Mitsubishi, two 2024 Toyotas and Hondas, a 2023 Toyota, a 2020 Ram, a 2019 Lexus on Oklahoma plates, and BMWs from 2011, 2017, 2019 and 2021. Plates on the list come from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia, South Dakota, Alabama and North Carolina, which says something about who gets ticketed in Queens.
The two November 5 sales run at the same hour at opposite ends of the city. At Five J's in the Bronx, Marshal Martin A. Bienstock's 50 lots include a 2020 Tesla, a 2021 BMW, a 2012 Jaguar, a 2026 Nissan and a 2026 Honda, and 2023 and 2025 Kias. At 5 J's Towing in Arverne, on the Rockaway peninsula, Marshal Matthew G. Regan's 63 lots have the widest spread of the month: fifteen vehicles from 2022 or newer, among them a 2025 Jeep, a 2026 Mazda, 2022 and 2023 Toyotas and Hondas and a 2023 Mercedes, five BMWs from 2004 to 2018, a 2019 Alfa Romeo, and lot 23, a 1964 Alfa Romeo, the oldest vehicle on any November list.
Brooklyn on November 6, at Breen Brothers on Shore Parkway under Marshal Jeffrey Rose, is the largest sale, 65 lots, with Mercedes from 1999, 2015 and 2020, three BMWs, four Infinitis including a 2022, 2025 Hyundai and Kia sedans, a 2024 Mitsubishi and a 2019 Ram. Staten Island closes the month on November 16, with Marshal George Essock Jr.'s 54 lots at Breen Brothers' Industrial Loop yard: a 2019 and a 2025 Tesla, two Mercedes, two BMWs, a 2013 Lexus, a 2014 Lincoln, the 2003 Hummer, and the newest vehicle in the five sales, a 2026 Volkswagen. Thirty-six of the 54 list a lienholder.
How to register and bid
There is no registration ahead of time and no online bidding. You show up at the tow yard before the hour on the list, 18 or older, with cash, and bid on the lots by number as the auctioneer calls them. The high bidder wins; if two bidders dispute a bid, the lot is re-opened; the Sheriff's Office can refuse any bid or cancel the sale at any time. Payment is in full, in cash, the moment the sale is final. Sales tax applies unless you hand over a resale certificate.
Then the clock starts. The vehicle must be out of the yard by 5 p.m. that day or storage runs $20 a day, and a vehicle still there 96 hours after that is treated as abandoned and taken away. The yard may charge its own release fee. There are no keys. You cannot drive or park the vehicle on the street unless it is properly registered and plated, so for most buyers that means a flatbed or a dolly and a plan made before the auction, not after. The buyer gets a Certificate of Sale, one per vehicle, no duplicates ever issued, and takes it to the DMV for a title; the DMV may treat the vehicle as salvage and require an inspection before it will title or register it.
The rule that separates these sales from a police impound sale in another city is the lien. The city's own page says some vehicles are sold subject to liens, that the liens remain after the sale, and that the Sheriff does not tell bidders which vehicles carry one. The lot lists do: a lienholder column names Santander, Capital One, Chrysler Capital, Ford Motor Credit, Exeter, Westlake, Credit Acceptance, Carvana, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and the credit unions, lot by lot. Across the five November lists, 152 of 292 vehicles show a lienholder. A 2022 BMW with Santander on the line is a different purchase from a 2009 Honda with nothing beside it, and the price difference on the day will say so. The city makes no warranty about year, condition or whether the car has open safety recalls, and tells buyers to run the VIN through NHTSA before bidding. The former owner cannot buy the car back, and the buyer is not responsible for the former owner's tickets.
What the city does not publish is results. There is no price list after a marshal's sale, so the only way to know what a tow-yard Honda brings in Flushing is to stand in the yard, which is the first thing to do with the November 4 sale if the November 5 and 6 sales are the target.
The short version
Five New York City marshal and sheriff vehicle auctions in November, 292 vehicles seized for unpaid ticket judgments, sold at the tow yards: Flushing November 4 at 9:30, the Bronx and Arverne November 5 at 10, Brooklyn November 6 at 9:30, Staten Island November 16 at 11. No pre-registration, no online bidding, cash in full on the spot, no keys, out of the yard by 5 p.m. or $20 a day. Fifty-three vehicles from 2022 or newer, 152 with a lienholder that stays on the car after the sale. The lot lists are on the Department of Finance page and linked above; the city publishes no results, and the lists for the rest of November go up as the sales are scheduled. First Contact members get each new list as it posts.
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Photo & Resource Information Credits: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Ray Raimundi), CC BY 2.0; Hugo L. González, CC BY-SA 4.0; Franz Golhen (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
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UX Auctions reported this article independently. We do not sell, consign, or take bids on any vehicle; the sales are conducted only by the New York City Sheriff's Office and the city marshals at the tow yards named in the city's notices. The photographs are from Wikimedia Commons and are credited to their photographers; they show Sheriff's Office vehicles, not lots in these sales.
Sources: New York City Department of Finance, Vehicle Auctions page (rules, terms, FAQ and the list of scheduled auctions) and the marshal's sale notices and lot lists for November 4 (Queens), November 5 (Bronx and Queens), November 6 (Brooklyn) and November 16 (Staten Island), 2026, all read October 29, 2026.