Donated Rolls sells for $15,000

Wednesday, May 7, 2003 | 8:55 a.m.

The Clark County chapter of the Salvation Army has sold a Rolls-Royce for $15,000, tying a record for the highest amount the local organization has received from the sale of a single donated item.

"It's a done deal," Gary Zielinski, the nonprofit organization's director of business and finance, said Tuesday, four days after the Sun broke the story about the 1973 royal blue Rolls that had been donated to the Salvation Army by an ex-professional boxer.

The pugilist, whose name was not released, apparently was grateful to the local Salvation Army for its adult rehabilitation program, from which one of his children had graduated.

The proceeds from the sale, which are equal to the record $15,000 that a buyer paid for a house boat sold by the local Salvation Army chapter a few years ago, will go toward financing the adult rehabilitation program, which provides treatment for drug and alcohol abuse and gambling addiction, Zielinski said.

The purchaser asked that her name not be released. The Salvation Army confirmed only that she is a Henderson resident who owns a small casino, bar and restaurant and plans to offer the Rolls-Royce as a prize in a slot promotion.

"She called hours after the story came out Friday, came down and put a deposit on the car, contingent upon her coming back with her mechanic to look it over," Zielinski said. "We got more than 40 calls about the car Friday."

The Rolls, which had been offered at the organization's Henderson thrift store, features right-side steering, leather seats, air-conditioning, an eight-track tape deck, just 81,000 miles on the odometer and a bottle of Grey Poupon mustard in the glove compartment.

The ex-boxer told Salvation Army officials that he originally paid $109,000 for the British-made car, but they said they did not know whether he purchased it new or used. The Salvation Army originally set its price at $20,000 but last Wednesday dropped it to $15,000 after it had failed to sell for three weeks at the organization's Green Valley store. By far, the Rolls was the most valuable second-hand gift the local Salvation Army has received in recent years. It beat the previous record for the sale of a donated used automobile, a two-seat Mercedes, that last year sold for $7,000.