Sold For $500, The “Storage Wars” Unit Contained A Fortune!

Dan Dotson discovered several things in the "Storage Wars" units. However, he did not expect to find such a large amount of money!

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If you’ve ever watched episodes of Storage Wars, you probably know Dan Dotson. This auctioneer likes to find intriguing things inside the darkest storage units. However, nothing could prepare him for this amazing discovery! Read this article to learn more!

1. The king of storage units


Although he has been a kind of legend in the auction world for the past few decades, it is undeniable that Storage Wars has taken Dan Dotson’s reputation to a whole new level. The auctioneer has been part of the successful series since day one. The man thought he had seen everything until a fortune was discovered in one of the storage units.

2. It started with a charity event


Dan Dotson heard a remarkable story while attending a charity event in California. The Storage Wars host was minding his own business when all of a sudden he noticed a woman looking at him from across the room. The woman approached him to reveal something spectacular.

3. She tells him a remarkable story


In a video he posted on Twitter, Dan Dotson paraphrased the story that the woman told him at the charity event in Indio, California. “An older Asian woman at the table next to me was looking at me as if she wanted to say something to me,” he says. “My husband works for a guy and he bought you a unit for $500 and there was a safe inside.”

4. Dan Dotson

In order to understand the meaning of this story and what it means for Dan Dotson, we need to understand who he is and his role in the story. It is safe to say that Dotson is not an ordinary guy. For nearly five decades, Dan has been heavily involved in the auction industry and more recently, he led American Auctioneers with his wife, Laura. However, something else made him a kind of superstar…

5. Back in the past

It seems that the auction has been going on in Dan Dotson’s veins since the very beginning. After seeing his grandfather work as an agricultural auctioneer in the 1970s, young Dan Dotson became passionate about this vocation at an early age. At only 11 years old, Dotson learned the art of auctioning from his grandfather during the summer. Over time, he was so immersed in this culture that he compromised his own education to sell furniture for Merl Bernard.

6. The beginning of an empire

While the 1970s was the decade in which Dan Dotson became passionate about auctions, the 1980s was the decade in which he mastered the art. In 1983, Dotson had the idea of founding its own auction company and launching its beloved American auctioneers. In the coming years, the auctioneer will run auction houses and sell everything from porcelain dolls to furniture and pottery.

7. American auctioneers

Although it has specialized in various fields over the years, American Auctioneers has remained true to Dotson’s vision since its inception in 1983. Today, Dan’s company is intensely focused on areas, equipment, warehousing units, and business inventories. She also helps organize fundraising and evaluations. Over the past few decades, the company has held an average of about a dozen auctions per week. However, there is no doubt in Dotson’s mind that none of this would have been possible without someone dear to him…

8. Laura used to run restaurants


Looks like Dan and Laura Dotson have always been inseparable. However, there was a time when they did their own things. Before meeting Dan, Laura ran restaurants and loved nothing more than gathering people and providing them with superior quality food. In fact, Laura was hoping to open a restaurant that made the best pizza in town. So in 1993, when she opened a new restaurant, she started looking for equipment to make pizzas…

9. When Dan met Laura

It turns out that’s when the two lovebirds met. Laura laid eyes on Dan when he was selling a restaurant and its contents. While Laura thought Dan was just trying to get her attention to sell her things, Dan was actually trying to flirt with her. In any case, her passion for auctioning rubbed off on Laura and before they knew it, they were inseparable.

10. A phenomenon on YouTube

What many occasional fans don’t realize about Dan Dotson is that until ten years ago, he wasn’t that famous. It was only when Laura realized that her husband was a charismatic auctioneer that she advised her to record her monkeys on video. Finally, Dan set up a YouTube channel and started posting videos of himself at his best as an auctioneer. One day, television producer Thom Beers appeared at one of Dan’s auctions and just like that, they started doing a reality show.

11. Health issues

Although Dan and Laura Dotson’s careers have improved over time, they had a difficult time in 2014. In the early hours of a summer morning, Dan woke up asking “weird questions” while he was sleeping. Then, when he woke up a few hours later, Dan fell to the ground and was rushed to the hospital. It turns out that Dotson had suffered from a double aneurysm. Surprisingly, after Laura performed CPR on her husband and had surgery, Dotson was on the road to recovery.

12. Not the same thing without him

Over the next decade, Storage Wars became one of the most popular reality TV shows and attracted the attention of millions of viewers. Although the show has gained a reputation for being extremely divisible, most people agree that the show would simply not be the same without Dan Dotson and his wife Laura. In 2015, Examiner.com wrote the following about Dan’s importance to Storage Wars: “Thom Beers had the idea for Storage Wars, but said that Dan and Laura Dotson inspired it”.

13. The craziest discovery of his career

A woman recently approached Dan Dotson and told the Storage Wars star that someone she knew had bought her a storage unit for only $500. But what he found there exceeded his wildest dreams or those of Dotson…

14. Originally purchased for $500

This brings us back to that defining encounter Dan Dotson had with the woman at the charity event. As mentioned earlier, the Storage Wars star had auctioned off a storage unit to someone for $500. However, it turns out that the sale will eventually come back to haunt the auctioneer. But why? Why? Dotson quickly realized that he had forgotten something inside the storage unit, something that would completely upset this story…

15. They found a safe

In the Twitter video, Dan Dotson revealed what the woman had told him about the mysterious content of the storage device in question. According to her, her husband’s friend had bought the device and after examining its contents, he discovered a mysterious safe. Determined to find out what was inside, they tried to open it themselves, but to no avail. So they decided to seek the help of a specialist to successfully open it.

16. They finally opened it up

The man in question firmly believed that all he needed to open the trunk was the right person who knew what she was doing. After contacting two professionals, they managed to open it.

17. 7.5 million dollars

The safe was not empty. In fact, when the woman began to reveal the contents of this safe, it seemed that Dan Dotson’s entire life had passed before her eyes. As she was saying the words “$7.5 million”, Dotson had to ask her to repeat them to make sure he heard them. That’s right, the man discovered $7.5 million inside a storage unit he bought from Dan Dotson of Storage Wars for only $500. What a return on investment!

18. He was speechless

Naturally, Dotson was completely overwhelmed by the information the woman had presented to him. Never in his many years of the auction had he set foot inside a storage unit and seen so much money. And when the time finally came, he had completely neglected money. He was a little upset by the news.

19. Huge piles of money

Movie characters like Tony Montana and Don Corleone would have been proud of the photos Dotson posted on his Facebook account. After contacting the anonymous buyer of his storage unit, Dotson revealed to the public that the person had dug up piles of cash. Displaying the money in wrapping paper before placing it on top of his bathtub, the pictures were absolutely breathtaking. But how did such a large amount of money end up in a storage unit?

20. The former owner contacted Dotson

It turns out that the former owner of the warehouse contacted his lawyer with the intention of recovering his money. He was prepared to negotiate with the current owner to reach an agreement. But what exactly did he offer for the money?

21. Here is the offer

It seemed strange for one party to offer money in exchange for another amount of money. Nevertheless, this is exactly what the original owner did. He offered $600,000 to the current owner for the amount of money. At that point, the current owner was not really happy that the former owner of the $7.5 million suddenly came out of nowhere. This raised the question: would the current owner accept this offer? And if not, what would happen?

22. Refused

The new owner refused the offer. In addition, a speaker at the Second Shot podcast stated that the current owner had every right to do so.

23. Second offer

After talking to his lawyer, the previous owner decided to come back with a second offer. But this time, he was ready to double his offer. Instead of $600,000, he offered a huge $1.2 million. This means that the current owner would keep this amount and refund the remaining $6.3 million. As the two men sat and reflected throughout the negotiations, someone else also had ideas to share on the issue. Dan Dotson also thought about what he would do in this situation, and so did his wife Laura…

24. What would Dan do?

As Dan and his wife Laura tried to put themselves in the current owner’s shoes, they wondered what they would do in this situation. When asked whether or not he would accept the $1.2 million, Dan Dotson finally said he would accept the agreement. This is mainly because he would not want to bother to continue the negotiations.