Posted on 11/24/2018 9:37:49 AM PST by Simon Green
Dan Dotson, the familiar face of the A&E reality show "Storage Wars," was standing at a charity event in Indio on Nov. 1 when a quiet woman approached him.
She had a story to tell the auctioneer.
Her friend bought a storage unit from Dotson the month before in Southern California — and found inside that shed was $7.5 million in cash. It came as a surprise to the buyer and the auctioneer.
“It was an amazing story,” Dotson told The Desert Sun as he recalled the exchange. “She said, ‘I just gotta tell you this story, my husband works for a guy that bought a unit from you and there was a safe in there.'” Dotson tried to hear the woman over the din of the event — the Cars, Stars and Rock 'N Roll charity auction in Indio, the city known for hosting the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
But he did catch the peak of the story: “She says, ‘there was a safe in the unit. The first guy couldn’t open it, so they called a second guy and there was $7.5 million,’ and I say ‘$7.5 million?’ and she says, ‘Cash.’”
Dotson declined to share the woman’s name, the city the unit was sold in or the name of the new owner of the unit, citing privacy and safety concerns. That auction was not recorded for the popular A&E series.
Dotson said when the original owners of the storage unit found out that their storage locker sold, they had their attorney contact the new owner to negotiate a deal to reclaim the money. The attorney originally offered the new unit owner $600,000 of the $7.5 million, but they eventually agreed to keep $1.2 million and return the rest.
Dotson and his wife Laura recounted the story in a YouTube video they posted on Nov. 7. On the video, Laura Dotson asks viewers what they would have done with the money.
“I would feel so worried,” she said. “I feel like it wouldn’t be clean money.”
Laura Dotson goes on to say that the history of a storage unit is sometimes a mystery — sometimes the owner moves away, forgets to keep paying the rent, ends up in jail or even passes away.
“Who knows, but this happens all the time and it’s the modern-day treasure hunt,” she said.
While Dan and Laura Dotson are known as featured auctioneers on "Storage Wars," this sale was just a routine sale through their Calimesa-based company American Auctioneers in California.
But Dan Dotson said he’ll be telling this story for the next 20 years. While his work has led to buyers finding many great treasures, no unit has ever turned up this much cash in his experience.
A single deposit *might* pass as not being noteworthy. Multiple deposits would set off alarms.
I always wondered what I would do if I found and kept a large amount of money. Just make small to modest cash purchases for the rest of my life?
First mistake is talking about it.
No, its very likely not clean money. Fed.gov will soon be contacting you to confiscate it.
Do we absolutely know this is the story—rather than it being some sort of money-laundering scheme?
Anyway, I guess I’m just not a very good shopper/buyer.
Then what would you have done?
I saw this Breaking Bad episode.
Lots of real estate is bought with cash. That could use up a lot of it. But do it gradually.
You could also, over time spread it out in various stock & bond funds. Again, over time, smaller deposits.
Pay off all your debts first.
“This would serve as inspiration for a good book or movie.”
‘A Simple Plan’ by Scott Smith. The book was really good, and amazingly, so was the movie.
“Two brothers and their friend stumble upon the wreckage of a plane–the pilot is dead and his duffle bag contains four million dollars in cash. In order to hide, keep, and share the fortune, these ordinary men all agree to a simple plan.”
No Country For Old Men
Some crazy Spainard will come looking for you
One thing you don’t do is display it on your bathtub, start taking selfies & yacking to ANYBODY about it.
Ooo! Thanks! I knew it must have already been done! I’ll check both of them out.
I would never tell a soul. I don’t see why I’d have any moral obligation to do so.
You may have to buy the movie - it’s not on Netflix to borrow. Maybe your library has it? They most likely have the book. It was written sometime in the ‘90’s, I believe.
I love a good murder mystery! :)
Lol
I would love to have that money but I would NEVER touch it. It is nothing but deadly trouble. People get whacked for much less.
Reminds me of the western movie plot where the old timer strikes it rich with a gold mine and runs to town to tell everyone. And gets screwed out of his mine, killed, or both.
If I ever found something like that I would not even tell my kids. I’d find a way to launder it and make it legal and up front.
I manage a self storage facility. While some auctions have had good stuff, most that are auctioned are crap. Unless it’s been rented by someone who passed away, most people who can’t pay the bills just have crap.
I wouldn’t hold out on someone keeps 7.5 million cash in a mini warehouse
No way
You can’t fight all of them
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