ORLANDO, Fla. - News 6 has learned that the online auction site for the gun that George Zimmerman used to shoot and kill Trayvon Martin that was open to the public was a fake auction and that a real auction for pre-qualified bidders only was underway privately. 
 
 The United Gun Group, which hosted the auction on its website, told News 6 that they had at least one verified offer of $120,000 for Zimmerman's gun and that they had 22 bidders on its real auction. A total of 42 bids were made. 
 
 The highest bid listed on the false auction site had a high bid near $140,000. When that auction ended at noon, the highest bid listed on UnitedGunGroup.com was $138,900, with nine online users placing more than 180 bids. The winning bidder on the fake auction was listed as John Smith. 
 
 United Gun Group said they had two auctions going on at the same time to "troll the trolls," and that this time, it worked. 
 
 It's not clear who the real auction winner was. News 6 contacted Zimmerman to see who the real winner was and if he wanted to comment. 
 
 Zimmerman replied saying he will give an interview if his stipulations are met, which were putting Zimmerman up in a four-star hotel and paying him $1,000 a day. 
 
 The United Gun Group tweeted earlier that Zimmerman had informed them that he was in the process of vetting several offers and verifying funds. (See full tweet below.) 
 
 Zimmerman later released a statement, thanking God for a successful auction that "raised funds for several worthy causes." 
 
 Fellow Patriots, 
 
 First and foremost, I would like to thank and give the glory to God for a successful auction that has raised funds for several worthy causes. I would like to thank Todd Underwood and UnitedGunGroup.com for their moral fortitude in hosting my firearm auction. I would also like to thank all members of UnitedGunGroup for their support and words of encouragement. I also appreciate the many former members of GunBroker AKA GunJoker.com for terminating their relationship with the Nazi loving, (go to their website and search “Nazi”) liberal, liars at Gunbroker.com. At this time, the auction with United Gun Group is closed. The process of notifying the winning bidder will begin immediately. The winning bidder will ultimately decide if they want their information to be maintained in confidentiality and they are assured that I will withhold their identity from all media and private parties. Please visit this page GMZ1776.com or email GMZfirearm@gmail.com for updates and notifications of future auction items. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 George Zimmerman 
 
 ~Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum~ 
 
 The Trayvon Martin Foundation declined to comment on the sale of the gun. 
 
 The first listing for the gun, posted on a different website last week, prompted worldwide headlines and controversy, resulting in the auction being pulled from the site. The gun was later posted on UnitedGunGroup.com. 
 
 The Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol that Zimmerman is trying to sell is the one that he used to shoot Martin in 2012 after a confrontation with the unarmed teenager in his Sanford neighborhood. 
 
 Zimmerman called police to report what he described as a suspicious person -- Martin -- walking in his neighborhood, then disregarded police instructions not to confront him. He said the teen attacked him and he shot in self-defense. 
 
 A jury acquitted Zimmerman in 2013. 
 
 In his post introducing the auction, Zimmerman touted the handgun as "a piece of American history." 
 
 It still carries the case number from his trial in silver permanent marker, Zimmerman said. 
 
 When first listing the gun, Zimmerman wrote: "I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American firearm icon. The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012." 
 
 Zimmerman said the gun had recently been returned to him by the Department of Justice. 
 
 Copyright 2016 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved. ||||| Bogus bidders apparently took over George Zimmerman's third attempt at auctioning-off the gun used to kill Trayvon Martin, but that might not have hindered him from finding a real buyer. 
 
 The auction, on UnitedGunGroup.com, ended at noon with a final bid of $138,900 made one minute before closing by a user named "John Smith." 
 
 A person identifying as Smith told the Orlando Sentinel that his bid wasn't serious. He said he wrote a computer program to bid automatically for him and that United Gun Group eventually noticed and deleted his account. 
 
 It's unclear if a sale has been finalized. 
 
 Shortly after the auction ended, Zimmerman released a statement saying "the process of notifying the winning bidder will begin immediately." 
 
 He didn't release the winner's name or give a sale price. 
 
 Evidence photos released by the Fourth Circuit Court State Attorney's Office and the lawyers for George Zimmerman in the shooting death of teen Trayvon Martin. Sanford resident Zimmerman has been charged with second-degree murder in Martin's death. Complete Trayvon Martin shooting case coverage 
 
 United Gun Group also posted on social media after the auction saying Zimmerman is "vetting several offers and verifying funds." 
 
 Another person, who bid numerous times and commented on the post appearing to be seriously interested in the gun, sent a message to the Sentinel just minutes before the auction ended saying his bids were actually bogus, too. 
 
 He said he had "no plans on owning this firearm." 
 
 "The trolls bidding me up didn't upset me at all, mainly because myself and fellow trolls are the only people that bid on this," the person wrote. 
 
 The auction went live at 9 a.m. Tuesday with a starting bid of $100,000 or a "buy it now" price of $500,000. 
 
 Several people bid on the gun, each time raising the price by $100. It's unclear if any were serious buyers. 
 
 Before the auction closed, Todd Underwood, who runs the site, commented that despite internet trolls driving up the price, the auction might have helped Zimmerman find a real buyer. 
 
 "Regardless, (Zimmerman) has been contacted by several real bidders with verified funds," Underwood wrote. 
 
 Zimmerman has been trying to sell the Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol since Wednesday, when he listed it on the website, GunBroker.com. 
 
 That sale, with a starting bid of $5,000, was supposed to start Thursday morning, but after an overwhelming amount of attention, the company pulled the listing just minutes before it began. 
 
 Several hours later, Zimmerman confirmed that he had re-listed the pistol with United Gun Group. 
 
 He voluntarily pulled that listing on Saturday, though, after bogus bidders drove up the price to more than $66 million. 
 
 Zimmerman then made the latest listing with the higher starting bid and more monitoring. 
 
 United Gun Group said this afternoon that there were actually two auctions running simultaneously – one for the public and another for "pre-qualified bidders." Results or details of a non-public auction haven't been released. 
 
 In his statement, Zimmerman thanked the company for hosting his auction, saying the auction "has raised funds for several worthy causes." 
 
 "I would also like to thank all members of United Gun Group for their support and words of encouragement," Zimmerman wrote. 
 
 Zimmerman was acquitted in 2013 of killing Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old. He said he was defending himself when he shot the teen during a struggle in 2012 in a Sanford neighborhood. 
 
 The auction listing described the gun as a piece of "American history" and includes photos from his 2013 second-degree murder trial. 
 
 sallen@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417 ||||| SANFORD, Fla. - Plans by George Zimmerman to sell the gun used to shoot and kill Trayvon Marin appeared to be in limbo early Friday, reports CBS Orlando, Florida affiliate WKMG-TV. 
 
 Thursday night, a second auction website used to list the gun deleted a tweet saying it would remove the auction from the site. 
 
 WKMG found bidding for the gun topping $200,000 early Friday. CBS News found it to be exponentially higher than that, but names given for bidders were all but certainly fake, and times listed for the bids were for hours later than when CBS News was on the site. CBS News could not verify the authenticity of anything on the page. 
 
 The gun was set to be auctioned starting Thursday at 11 a.m. on GunBroker.com, but by 11:18 a.m., the website said the listing for Zimmerman's Kel-Tec PF-9 9mm weapon had been removed. GunBroker.com released a statement on its website Thursday afternoon that addressed the listing. 
 
 info Close gunbroker.com 
 
 "Listings on the GunBroker.com web site are user-generated, exactly like social media posts. Mr. Zimmerman never contacted anyone at GunBroker.com prior to or after the listing was created and no one at GunBroker.com has any relationship with Zimmerman," GunBroker.com wrote on its website. "Our site rules state that we reserve the right to reject listings at our sole discretion, and have done so with the Zimmerman listing. We want no part in the listing on our web site or in any of the publicity it is receiving." 
 
 At around 2:30 p.m. Thursday, UnitedGunGroup.com listed the same gun for auction, with the same starting bid price at $5,000, posted by someone with the username George Zimmerman. The site, which calls itself a "social market place for the firearms community, then apparently went down a few minutes later. 
 
 Thursday night, UnitedGunGroup.com posted this statement: 
 
 "As an organization, we stand by the rule of law and, while no laws have been broken, we do not feel like it is in the best interest of the organization to continue to host this sale on our platform," company officials said in a press release. "Our mission is to esteem the Second Amendment and provide a safe and secure platform for firearms enthusiasts and law-abiding citizens; our association with Mr. Zimmerman does not help us achieve that objective." 
 
 That online posting was later deleted. Todd Underwood, the founder of the group, later sent an email to CNN saying an official response would be released at 10 a.m. Friday. 
 
 The initial auction description appeared to have the same text as the original auction posting, in which Zimmerman wrote: "I am honored and humbled to announce the sale of an American Firearm Icon. The firearm for sale is the firearm that was used to defend my life and end the brutal attack from Trayvon Martin on 2/26/2012." 
 
 Zimmerman added that the gun had recently been returned to him by the Department of Justice. 
 
 Zimmerman claimed that he was selling the gun to raise money to "fight Black Lives Matter violence against law enforcement" and "Hillary Clinton's anti-firearm rhetoric." 
 
 Zimmerman said in the auction listing that he has received several offers for the gun, including from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. 
 
 The Smithsonian released a statement Thursday morning, saying: "The Smithsonian has never expressed interest in collecting George Zimmerman's firearm. The Smithsonian has no plans to ever collect or display this object in any of its museums." 
 
 The Trayvon Martin Foundation said it had "no comment on the actions of that person," a report from The Guardian said. 
 
 Martin was shot and killed by Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012, after an altercation in a Sanford community. 
 
 Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter on July 13, 2013. 
 
 The shooting sparked protests and a national debate about race relations. 
 
 Anthony Ramos lives just doors down from Zimmerman in the same neighborhood where the shooting happened in 2012 and says he was stunned when he saw the gun up for auction Thursday morning. 
 
 "He's a really bad person. I just see him as a really bad person," Ramos said. "He shouldn't be selling the gun that he used to kill someone else. I just don't think it's good." 
 
 What Ramos wasn't shocked about though, was that Zimmerman was back in the news. Since his 2013 acquittal, Zimmerman has been arrested in connection to domestic violence claims and shot at a year ago. 
 
 "He wants more attention, he wants more attention and that's what he's getting," Ramos said. 
 
 Francis Oliver takes care of the Trayvon Martin memorial in Goldsboro section of Sanford. 
 
 "It's exploitation," Oliver said. "It's for attention. He hadn't shot at anybody lately, he hadn't beat up on anybody lately, no one has shot at him in about a year, so it's time for him to raise the curtain on himself."
– It looks like George Zimmerman has sold his gun after all. Both TMZ and WKMG report an online auction that ended Wednesday received a verified top bid of $120,000 for the weapon used to kill Trayvon Martin. A higher bid of nearly $140,000 by "John Smith" appeared to be bogus. In fact, WKMG reports that auction site United Gun Group actually had two auctions going—a fake one open to the public destined to attract pranksters like "John Smith," and a closed one made up of pre-qualified bidders. "I would like to thank and give the glory to God for a successful auction that has raised funds for several worthy causes," Zimmerman said in a statement addressed to "Fellow Patriots." The Trayvon Martin Foundation declined to comment. UGG tweeted that Zimmerman is "in the process of vetting several offers and verifying funds," adding, "Our part in this process is over and we are going to get back to business as usual." The site, though, is taking plenty of heat for facilitating the auction. "I hope you enjoy your time with the devil in hell," reads a representative tweet. Zimmerman's efforts to auction the 9mm pistol have not gone smoothly. Another site, GunBroker.com, backed out. And the fiirst attempt attracted several joke bids, such as the $65 million offered by "Weedlord Bonerhitler." (In a recent interview, an unrepentant Zimmerman said Martin's mother and father were bad parents who "didn't raise their son right.")