Storage Wars: Barry Weiss Rumored Death Explained

At one point, some fans of A&E's "Storage Wars" thought former mainstay Barry Weiss had died years after his first tenure on the show concluded. While his eventual return confirmed his survival beyond any doubt, those fans' belief did, at the very least, stem from a real-life incident.

Inspiring rumors of his death was the fact that Weiss ended up in a life-threatening accident in April of 2019. According to a TMZ report, he and a friend named Jamie Robinson were riding motorcycles through the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles when they suddenly crashed into a car. Neither drugs nor alcohol impaired either man, TMZ confirmed, and the driver of the car they crashed into had purportedly backed up without looking beforehand.

Both Weiss and his friend were hospitalized as a result, though Weiss sustained more serious injuries than his motorcycle riding companion. Whereas Robinson broke a few bones, he wrote in an Instagram post, "My friend is much worse and has serious chest and leg trauma." The particulars of these injuries aren't public record, but Weiss' life was nevertheless at risk to some degree, hence a rumor starting that he didn't survive the crash.

Barry Weiss originally left "Storage Wars" after appearing on its first four seasons between 2010 and 2013. In the immediate aftermath of this run he both hosted an eight-episode spinoff titled "Barry'd Treasure" in 2014 and a ten-episode series titled "Storage Wars: Barry Strikes Back" in which he and co-host Kenny Crossley commented on past "Storage Wars" seasons. This latter show wrapped up in 2016, after he which he simply contented himself with a life away from the spotlight.

His accident, then, occurred during this period when he was no longer a public figure. Weiss kicked off the trajectory that led to his "Storage Wars" return when, after he concluded a roughly three-month hospital stay in June 2019, he took on a gig at the Sherwood Valley Casino in the remote Northern California city of Willits. He worked for the casino as a brand ambassador, effectively returning to a public-facing role, albeit on a smaller scale than his former national TV stardom.

Today, Weiss is back on "Storage Wars" as of its Season 14 premiere in November of 2021. His near-death experience, then, seems to have led him to first working at the Sherwood Valley Casino before returning to "Storage Wars" and coming back in a big way from an accident that some outside observers presumed he hadn't survived.