Infamous motorized recliner sold for $10,099

The motorized recliner seized by a northern Minnesota police department has sold for $10,099, but the chair's new owner hasn't come forward yet.

Proctor, Minn. Police Chief Walter Wobig said Friday that the new owner has two business days to make a deposit for the chair, which was seized after its previous owner crashed it into a parked car while intoxicated. The new owner likely bought the chair for its fame after news about it spread worldwide, he said.

The $10,099 winning bid is much lower than the $43,500 one bidder offered before the department was forced to re list the item. Company officials at La-Z-Boy had complained that the ad used the company's name for a chair that wasn't a La-Z-Boy.

Wobig said the lower bids during the second auction probably had more to do with Web traffic than with the La-Z-Boy name, which wasn't included in the second posting.

"Last week I had over 120,000 people hit on the page. I had over 87,000 people actively watching it. When it was pulled by eBay everyone thought, 'Hey, the chair's gone, the bidding's done,'" Wobig said.

But the lower winning bid will still help the city, which will get to keep about 70 percent of the sales price with the rest going to the state and prosecuting attorney in the case.

"For a little town like this, that's a nice chunk of change. $43,500 would have been a nicer chunk of change, but, you know, we're not going to cry about receiving $10,000," he said.