Reagan’s blood pulled from auction

President Ronald Reagan is photographed with Southern GOP Chairman Bill Harris (left), Newt Gingrich, and Mack Mattingly in this Jan. 26, 1984 photo. (AJC)

UPDATE: As predicted, a vial said to contain the dried blood of former President Ronald Reagan will not be auctioned, CNN reports.

The auction was halted Thursday, with the anonymous owner of the vial saying he’d be happy to donate it to the Reagan library. Bids had surpassed $30,000.

ORIGINAL POST:

Officials with the Ronald Reagan library have vowed to “use every legal means to stop” the sale of blood taken by a hospital where the president was treated after a 1981 assassination attempt.

Sky News reports the online auction has already attracted bids of more than $10,000.

The seller, not identified, claims he got the blood from his mother, who worked as a nurse contracted by Walter Reed Army Medical Center when Reagan was admitted there after the March 30, 1981, assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr.

The former U.S. solider, who served during Reagan’s term, said he initially offered to sell the vial to the Reagan library, but library officials said they would only accept it as a donation.

Instead of making a donation, he decided to auction the vial because he’s “a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that President Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it.”

In the auction listing, the seller alleges he asked a federal agent if “black cars/suv’s or helicopters [will be] hovering above my home” if the blood was sold, but the agent assured him “everything was OK” with the sale.

The auction is set to run until May 24.

I’ll guess the auction is halted before then.