Nut, there was a similar case in UK. I could make a guess at the entrepreneur but:
He went to a war surplus auction and bought a truck. I might have been a Bedford 30cwt. When he went to collect it he was asked when he was going to remove them. He had bought 100!
Each truck had a covered tilt. He opened one and found a brand new motor bike inside. He was assured that this was part of the deal. He found a motor bike in each one.
From planning a simple one-man truck operation he became a fleet owner in one bound.
Such profligacy continued of course. We furnished our first home with solid oak furniture that Kinloss fed on to the local market at around £20 a throw. They were told to stop it and pass everything through the official sales at Stirling. One day, somewhere in Forres, we saw single oak ended beds one pound each. That sorted a bedroom out too.
Not just the RAF. Boeing in the early '90s defurnished all their hirings in Lincoln and the stuff was sold knock down in a hangar sale at Waddo.
Who ever came up with Resource Accounting did the secondhand and surplus market a power of good. We even managed to buy a paint locker back from our local surplus store for £35 against the stores price of £495. Better, the MOD actually owned that £35 locker so the monet went from Strike to some other department where the administration fees probably ate it up anyway.