Storage Wars' Don Dotson Recalls The $7.5 Million In Cash Once Found In A Locker He Auctioned Off
Viewers of "Storage Wars" know it's all a crapshoot. Sometimes, when the door to that dark and dusty storage unit slides up, you realize you've just paid a lot of money for a dud. Other times, you find something truly remarkable and truly valuable. This is to say nothing of the truly odd, sometimes terrifying items that can pop up in storage units generally (via New York Daily News). And though there are plenty of moments that have been staged, with pricey or rare items salted into some of these units, the gamble at the heart of the show is what has kept it going for 14 seasons.
During their time at American Auctioneers, Dan and Laura Dotson have seen it all, and some of it has been lucky enough to be caught on "Storage Wars." But there's a difference between a great find and hitting an absolute, life-changing jackpot. These are the kind of things that the lucky buyer could in turn sell for an unbelievable sum of money, like rare paintings or gold doubloons – each of which ended up fetching hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Then, of course, there was that one time when someone bought a storage locker worth millions. And it turns out they didn't need to sell anything.
One buyer found $7.5 million in their storage unit
You read that right: $7.5 million was discovered in one of the storage units after its sale. Though the sale itself apparently took place on a non-filming day, Dan Dotson claims that he was approached by someone who purchased a unit for $500 from American Auctioneers at a charity event (via TheBlast.) Among the items inside was a safe, naturally with no combination or key to be found.
"When that person opened it up, inside the safe — normally they're empty," Dan said in a video posted on Facebook, "but this time it wasn't empty — [and] it had $7.5 million cash inside the safe."
However, the previous owner of the storage unit got word of the massive windfall, and through their lawyer reached out to the new owner, asking for their millions back. How they weren't able to keep up with the payments for the unit while being in possession of more than $7 million isn't quite clear. Initially offering $600,000 in return for the rest of the cash inside the safe, both parties eventually settled on a reward of $1.2 million. And though that's obviously a lot less than $7 million, we still think it's a pretty jaw-dropping haul for something they paid $500 for.