Paris Hilton's empty dog food can reaches 1.5 million dollars on eBay

An empty gourmet dog food can plundered from Paris Hilton's trash has launched an eBay bidding war reaching $1.5 million (euro1.1 million).

Photo: Paris Hilton's empty dog food can reaches 1.5 million dollars on eBay

A pair of enterprising scavengers from the Web site HollywoodStarTrash.com also put three other Hilton items for sale on eBay: a used toothbrush, an autographed postcard and a fan letter to the celebrity heiress. The highest bid for those was $285 (euro212) offered for the toothbrush. Bidding closes Sunday.

Although the top bidder's eBay profile shows the person has gotten no complaints from sellers, one of the scavengers said he has asked the Web site to check on the bid's legitimacy and pull it if it is fake.

"I'm definitely skeptical," said one of the HollywoodStarTrash guys, who declined to give his full name for fear of jeopardizing his day job.

"I'd hate to get that eBay bill and then nobody pays," he laughed.

EBay spokeswoman Kim Rubey said the online auction site is investigating the bid.

"We do like to remind all the buyers that any bid is a binding contract to enter into an agreement with the seller, and we do have rules against bids that are not legitimate and we will take action against a joke bid," she said.

At least one person who has found gold in Hilton's trash is Daryl Abrams, president and CEO of Party Animal Inc., the West Hollywood business that markets the Party Animal organic gourmet dog food found in Hilton's trash.

"We have received a ton of Internet orders," Abrams said. "The last 24 hours have been the most amount of orders that we've had."

Party Animal, which goes for as much as $2.99 (euro2.25) per can, can be found in about 150 stores in Southern California and about 40 in New York, Abrams said. It can also be purchased through the company's Web site.

Abrams said Hilton, one of his best customers, buys it by the case.

"They are the most well-taken-care-of dogs," he said of her pets.