One of the lockers typically auctioned off on Storage Wars has reportedly been seized by federal investigators, after it was found to contain military-grade intelligence gathering. Federal authorities believe that the arsenal may have been used in some kind of “espionage attack,” which is now under investigation. The buyer is now looking for a way to recover her lost investment on the storage unit.
The mysterious military arsenal has only gone public because Nabila Haniss and her partner are suing Boeing, the parent company behind the intelligence tech. According to legal documents obtained by The Blast, Haniss and her partner paid for the storage unit fair and square on A&E’s Storage Wars, only to have the government take their findings off their hands.
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The locker in question was located in Lennox, California, and was sold to Haniss on Sept. 6. She reportedly paid $6,900 for the unit, after peeking inside and seeing “several hard, black cases that appeared to be electronic equipment.” It is unclear whether this sale was filmed for the show, but it followed the same rules.
After the purchase, Haniss and her partner reportedly inspected the equipment and “realized it was military gear, and the company listed on the packaging was a subsidiary of Boeing, so they immediately contacted Boeing and lawyered up.”
The company in question is Digital Receiver Technology, or DRT. The company states that it “develops hardware and software products for wireless surveillance and tracking equipment for federal government and law enforcement customers.”
“DRT’s digital signal processing products, such as wireless receivers and transceivers, are used by U.S. intelligence customers, the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security to collect signal intelligence and threat warnings,” read a statement from Boeing in 2008.
“This acquisition is another move in our strategy to expand our presence in the growing intelligence market… with DRT on our Boeing team, we have expanded our ability to offer military and law enforcement customers improved tools for gathering, analyzing and sharing intelligence,” said Boeing executive Jim Albaugh at the time.
It is unclear what became of the surveillance gear seized in the sale. Haniss’ lawsuit makes no mention of how it was taken or what the investigation might look like, so it sounds like she and her partner are not participating in it. Haniss was featured on Seasons 2, 3 and 4 of the series and was nicknamed “Paris Hilton” after purchasing a unit that contained the celebrity’s belongings.
So far, A&E has not announced concrete plans for a new season of Storage Wars this fall.
