An hour before the auction began, officials started up the vehicles — if they could start.

Gerry Kahookamo milled around the 18 cars, trucks and a motorcycle in a parking lot at Blaisdell Center to see what he liked.

"You just got to make sure you check ’em good," he said.

Kahookamo was among the hundreds of people who turned up Saturday to see whether they could make crime pay, indirectly.

The state Attorney General’s Office holds several auctions a year to sell assets that were used or acquired in connection with criminal activities and seized under state law. The seizure and forfeiture program also deters criminal conduct by taking criminals’ tools and illegal profits, the Attorney General’s Office said.

Items on the bidding list included jewelry, electronics and precious metals.

Kern Nishioka, asset forfeiture program manager, estimated Saturday’s auction raised $95,000 — money that will be returned to law enforcement at the state and county levels. Another auction will be held in December.

Many walked away with deals.

Kiki Roller of Kaneohe allotted herself $1,800 for a used car. She bought a 2001 black Mazda Protege for $400.

"I was nervous," she said.

Paul Texeira, who planned to spend a maximum of $15,000 on a 2003 white Cadillac Escalade pickup with about 55,000 miles, won with a $14,000 bid. He wanted the Cadillac to take his grandchildren on road trips across the mainland, where he will relocate with his wife.

"I figured I wasn’t going to get it," he said. "I said, ‘I’ll just go to the max and peter out,’ but they petered before I did."

Not everyone was impressed with the selection.

Isaac Kama, who attended the auction for the first time, decided against bidding after assessing the quality of the vehicles. He stuck around, however, to see how much they sold for and to watch the jewelry sell "because gold’s going up."

Derek Todd, a painter from Ewa Beach who works at Pearl Harbor, attends private vehicle auctions every week to buy autos to fix and give to family or to sell to friends.

He bought a 2002 Honda Civic for $800 that had a large woofer enclosed in a 3-foot-tall box, sitting on the car’s floorboard where the passenger seat had been. A man offered him $300 for the speaker, but Todd turned it down because he wanted it for his son.

"This is my side play-around," he said. "I love playing with cars."