The city will prosecute "with glee" anyone caught trespassing or taking pieces of the house once owned by BTK serial killer Dennis Rader, the mayor says.
Earlier this month, Park City paid less than $60,000 for the suburban Wichita house where Rader and his family lived for 25 years before he pleaded guilty to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991.
At least one person was trying to hawk what were described as pieces of the house on the Internet auction site eBay. The starting bid for boards, supposedly taken from the serial killer's home, was 99 cents.
"If there is any way to prosecute this person we will," Park City Mayor Dee Stuart said after learning about the online auctions from The Associated Press on Friday afternoon.
"One way or another it's a crime," she said. "If it was taken from the house it's theft. If it was not taken from the house it's fraud."
Rader, who is serving 10 consecutive life terms in prison, called himself BTK for his preferred method of killing, "bind, torture and kill."
The city plans to tear down the house soon but will not say when demolition will begin. "This is not meant to be a spectacle," Stuart was quoted as saying by The Wichita Eagle in its Friday edition. Some debris will be buried at an undisclosed landfill, with some burned at other sites
Stuart said that shortly after Rader's arrest in February 2005, people tried to use eBay to sell tickets Rader had written as animal control officer. EBay eventually removed the auctions, she said.
Stuart said she would contact eBay to have them take down the latest auction. By early afternoon Friday, no one had placed a bid for the unusual souvenir from Rader's old house. The auction was scheduled to end Jan. 24.
The eBay seller, identified as "farm-boy-bbq," said in the description of the item: "I have some pieces of btk's house which is being torn down to make a public park, i had to go through a lot to get these, i will mail you a flat rate box stuffed full of these lath boards from his house!!"
The city wants to use the site to create a new entryway to Jardine Memorial Park, a small park with trees, swings, a half basketball court and a parking lot.
