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.
DeafSmith: A Texas legend. Excellent handle. Well done.
If you have 7.5 million you do not have to worry about investing it anywhere.
I would contact a lawyer, then give back the money after making sure I had no tax or other legal liability.
I would consider myself a thief if I kept the money, regardless of the law.
What idiot knowing the storage outfit is making a final demand for payment, lest they lose the unit get auctioned off, does not go get the $7.5 million out of the safe and make the payment on their storage unit.
Conversely, what idiot takes possession of a safe, never gets it open and just puts it a storage unit, never knowing what’s in it until they lose it in an auction of their their contents of the storage unit?
“I would never tell a soul. I don’t see why I’d have any moral obligation to do so.”
Exodus 20:15
That was a great movie and unusual for the guy who did Evil Dead (Sam Raimi).
“A Simple Plan” is on Amazon Prime.
Not that i’ve Thought about this or went through a cash horde, but what you do is maintain your same life style and pay as much as you can with cash.
Buying gas, fill it up. Pay cash.
Groceries, pay cash.
Paying off a store credit card, go to the store...pay cash.
You’d be surprised what a pain in the neck it is to pay cash these days.
And then authorizes their consigliere, Tom Hagen, to let you keep $1.2 million of it rather than take you and the storage facility to court to get it all back.........
$7.5 mil isn't worth wondering who is ringing your doorbell or driving that 10 year old grey car you constantly keep seeing in your rear view mirror or the same car you see driving by your house......
A poster above asked why someone with that kind of money hidden in a public storage facility wouldn't have kept up on the monthly payments to rent it. Someone with that wealth would likely have someone working for them whose job is to take care of that part of their business. It could very well be that there is now another job opening in finance for whoever rented that storage.
It’s on Amazon Prime. I made it to the point that one of them kills a farmer who was headed in the general direction of the downed plane. They seemed too damned stupid to care about at that point. Oh, and at no point did they ever actually even try to stick to the simplementation olan.
Lol, SIMPLE PLAN.
My favorite “found money” movie is this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Varrick
Charley Varrick (aka The Last of the Independents and Kill Charley Varrick) is a 1973 crime film directed by Don Siegel and starring Walter Matthau, Andrew Robinson, Joe Don Baker and John Vernon. The film was based on the novel The Looters by John H. Reese.
Charley Varrick is a crop-duster and former stunt pilot. Charley, his wife Nadine, longtime accomplice Al Dutcher, and youngster Harman Sullivan rob a bank in the rural community of Tres Cruces, New Mexico.
When they count the money, it totals $765,118, much more than expected. After a local news broadcast reports that only $2,000 was stolen, Charley says the bank must be involved in a money laundering operation.
I could disappear pretty good w 7.5 extra large
I’m not familiar with the director’s other works - but I’ll go take a look. Maybe with one eye shut? LOL!
I know he’s weird, but I would watch Billy Bob Thornton in anything. ‘Sling Blade’ was amazing.
Thanks but we live in No Man’s Land. I’m lucky to have satellite internet - some days! I can hardly watch YouTube videos.
I had to ‘fix’ our Internets the other day. Pulled a wet leaf off the ‘transponder’ or whatever the heck it is! ;)
Oooo! Another one to look for. Thanks!
Where I work, if you’re unit is scheduled for auction, you cannot get in unless you pay your bill. I lock people out all the time after the 6th of the month if the bill is not paid.
It’s probably drug money. The guy bought the storage unit at auction so unless the police intervene and can prove it was ill gotten proceeds, it is the purchaser’s right to keep it. If I had been the purchaser I would have kept it, for sure.
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