‘Storage Wars’ Auctioneer Sells Unit Containing 7.5 Million Dollars in Safe

Storage Wars auctioneer Dan Dotson helped one bidder win big.

While at the Cars, Stars and Rock N’ Roll charity auction event in Indio, California last weekend, the auctioneer for the A&E series sold his most valuable unit yet: a locker containing $7.5 million safely locked away in a safe.

“An older Asian woman at the table next to me kept looking at me like she wanted to tell me something,” he told The Blast. “Eventually she walked up and told me her husband works with a guy who bought a unit from me for $500 and found a safe inside.”

“A lady came to me and she says ‘I want to tell you this story. My husband works for a guy, and he bought a unit from you and it had a safe in it,’” Dotson recalled. “And the first person that he called to open the safe, I guess couldn’t. They called a second person, and when that person opened it up, inside the safe – normally they’re empty, but this time it wasn’t empty. It had $7.5 million cash inside the safe.”

As for how that hefty sum of money was abandoned in a storage unit, your guess is as good as Dotson’s.

“You know, $7.5 million inside of a unit, I don’t think you’d forget it, but maybe you were just in a position where somebody else was in charge of it,” he said.

“Credit card went bad, it was finished,” chimed in Don’s wife, Laura Dotson. “They moved away. Perhaps the person went to jail. Who knows what it was, but it happens all the time. This is the modern day treasure hunt.”

Bargain Hunters Thrift Store owner and Dotson’s Storage Wars costar Rene Nezhoda suggested that the origin of the money could be Mafia or Cartel-related because “if you find money like that, there’s probably a reason it isn’t in the bank.”

Dotson explained to The Blast that after the unit sold and news of the treasure inside broke, an attorney claiming to represent the previous owner of the storage unit approached her, offering a $600,000 reward for the return of the $7.5 million. After initially declining the offer, the new owners of the unit agreed to a new deal: pocket $1.2 million and give the previous owners the remaining $6.3 million.

Storage Wars, which was not filming at the time of the auction, airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on A&E.