Everyone Wins With Baileys Harbor Fire Truck Auction

Michael Schreiber, left, shows off the 1977 Ford F-250 he bought through auction from the Baileys Harbor Fire Department in order to keep the truck in Baileys Harbor. With him, from left, are his cousin, Jimmy Egan and Baileys Harbor Fire Department members Eric Peil, Dave Burns and Brad Rasmusson.

Who in their right mind would pay more than $20,000 for a 36-year-old pickup truck?

Well, Michael Schreiber of Baileys Harbor not only would, he did just that when the Baileys Harbor Fire Department put its 1977 Ford F-250 truck up for auction on WisconinAuction.com.

“There was no way it was leaving Baileys Harbor,” Schreiber said.

The truck came to his attention during the Baileys Harbor 4th of July parade, which he attended with his family and his cousin Jimmy Egan’s family.

“Between the Egans and the Schreibers, we’re third generation on Ridges Road,” Schreiber said. “We’ve grown up watching these guys go to fires, in parades. And just the whole thing with fire departments as kids is a huge deal. We watched this truck going up, and there was no way we were going to let it leave Baileys Harbor.”

“We saw it in the parade with an auction sign on it and I looked over at Michael,” Egan said.

“It was just a quick nod,” Schreiber said. “We knew we had to take it down. And we kept it for these guys (referring to the Baileys Harbor Fire Department). We didn’t want it to disappear. I think it’s important. We’re going to treat it like a legacy, and these guys know if the fire department ever wants to use it, it’s theirs. We’ll treat it as a museum piece.”

“It only had 6,400 miles. That’s what made it highly collectible. A virgin truck that was not touched,” said Assistant Fire Chief Eric Peil, who was in charge of the auction.

“I received calls from as far away as Arizona,” Peil said. “Every one of the callers said they wanted to keep it as it is.”

The department purchased the truck new in 1977 for $5,800.

“It was used very sparingly as a brush unit,” Peil said. “Primarily the truck was used for wild fires in fields and woods. The truck itself is a bit dated and underpowered for our use. We wanted to go from the regular cab pickup to a crew cab pickup for more personnel.”

Schreiber said it took some hard work to come up with the $20,250 for the truck, but he feels it was worth every penny.

“I don’t go around buying stuff a lot when it comes to toys, but this thing is a treasure. Any price. It could have been a million bucks. We would have found a way to do it,” he said. “We’re really excited it’s not leaving the town. It’s never going to go north of Q and never south of Maxwelton Braes. It’s only for town.”

Peil said the department used the $20,250 the Schreiber paid for the truck to buy a new utility vehicle.

“It’s going to cover 70 percent of the cost of the new vehicle, which we’ve already ordered,” he said, adding that the remaining 30 percent came from money raised through the department’s annual 4th of July pancake breakfast and the sale of t-shirts.

“We had enough to buy the truck outright, so this is really great,” Peil said.