Blagojevich Items up for Auction Thursday Raise $30K

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Chicago - With the atmosphere of a festival, seven large crates of items once belonging to Rod Blagojevich were on the auction block Thursday at a storage facility in Arlington Heights.

Vaults of files, photographs and even a life-size statue of Elvis were all sitting in the facility for years, put there Blagojevich’s campaign fund.

Friends of Blagojevich hadn’t paid its bills in years and owed thousands of dollars in fees that were past due.

The event had a bouncy house, two Elvis impersonators and music.

The auction raised a total of $30,000.  A man from Sugar Grove bought a life-size Elvis statue for $20,500, outbidding a man from Orland Park who said he had a truck on standby in case he won.

An executive with the storage company said he knew what some of the items were, but there were plenty of surprises.

“We don't have any idea. We prepared them for auction, as you can see there are some pictures and stuff out. I think for the most part it's a lot of files, legal files. There's a lot of boxes that say tape on them. I assume there's videotapes in there,” said Joe Saverino, CFO of Boyer Rosene.

Saverino said he doesn't feel great about auctioning the items off, but the bills are past due and the money goes to a good cause.

The proceeds will benefit Children's Memorial Hospital, which came up in Blagojevich’s trial as a target of an alleged shakedown.

Saverino chose the hospital because he has had children cared for there and wanted to give a big donation to it.

He also said he put aside some items of the former governor's that were too personal, including files from college, to try to give them back.