$500 purchase becomes $7.5 million find

[Mufasa]

“Storage Wars” star Dan Dotson said he just discovered that he sold a storage unit containing $7.5 million in cash for a measly $500.

Dotson and his co-star wife Laura told The Blast that a random woman approached him at one of his auctions about the multi-million dollar finding last week.

“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,” Dotson said.

The woman said the new unit owner, who wasn’t identified, took the safe to a locksmith who broke it open and discovered $7.5 million in cash.

Things got complicated when the new owner was contacted by an attorney representing the former owners, who offered a $600,000 reward in exchange for the cash.

The new owners declined the initial offer before settling on $1.2 million to return the remaining $6.3 million.

The Dotsons’ co-star, Bargain Hunters Thrift Store owner Rene Nezhoda, said the cash was most likely mafia or drug cartel-related.

“If you find money like that, there’s probably a reason it isn’t in the bank,” Nezhoda told The Blast.

This unit sells for 500 bucks, buyer finds 7.5 million cash, attorney reaches out on behalf of the previous owner & nicely offers 1.2 million dollars back in return for all money back.

What would you do?

[RobertoCarlos]

This unit sells for 500 bucks, buyer finds 7.5 million cash, attorney reaches out on behalf of the previous owner & nicely offers 1.2 million dollars back in return for all money back.

What would you do?

Move to timbucktwo and start a weed business.

[Varitok]

Its probably safer to take the 1.2 million since that 7.5 could be pretty sketchy.

[nyc81991]

No way I would give up 7.5 Million for 1.2. If I was going to give anything back it would be half.

[Independent voter]

$7.5 million, somebody is going to wind up in court for the next 30 years, the money will be held by the courts.

[Dundebuns]

No way I would give up 7.5 Million for 1.2. If I was going to give anything back it would be half.

If it was mob related then it wouldn't pay to be too greedy.

[IIamaKing]

Call my own lawyer and have him advise me on the legality, if I am entitled to that 7 mill, yep Im keeping it. Pay a few mill in taxes no problem.

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If it was mob related then it wouldn't pay to be too greedy.

I doubt, HIGHLY, the mob is losing 7 mill in a unpaid storage locker.

[Bigbazz]

Must have been a pretty fucking big safe to have 7.5mil inside it, I'm skeptical.

[muto]

No way I would give up 7.5 Million for 1.2. If I was going to give anything back it would be half.

If it’s dirty money it’s safer to take the 1 million.

[JoshuaNLG]

These storage lockers get auctioned off when the owner of said storage locker doesn't pay the fee to keep it.

So, with 7.5 million dollars, why the fuck was this guy NOT able to pay the fee?

[xcitng]

If you could confirm it was mafia money, I'd take the 1mil real quick so I didn't end up dead.

[Logwyn]

“Storage Wars” yeah. The show that plants things in lockers for the shock factor on the show.

[zhero]

This unit sells for 500 bucks, buyer finds 7.5 million cash, attorney reaches out on behalf of the previous owner & nicely offers 1.2 million dollars back in return for all money back.

What would you do?

i'd wonder why if they were the legit owners why they let the payments slide and tell them there was no money in it.

[I Push Buttons]

Must have been a pretty fucking big safe to have 7.5mil inside it, I'm skeptical.

$7.5 million in hundreds is only like 3 cubic feet.

[LilSaihah]

Probably let the IRS know.

[Phookah]

Take the 1.2 million reward and not end up in the obituaries from a mob hit.

[endersblade]

First of all, I would not tell ANYONE that I found it. That was their first, critical problem. Secondly, I would hope that the legalese behind abandoned storage sales would prevent the previous owners from attempting to claim anything that was in there, that's sort of the whole point of the show/idea (people actually have been doing this long before Storage Wars ever came along, btw). So even if someone managed to find out about it, there isn't anything that could be legally done - I found it, I keep it, end of discussion. There are so many legal ways to make that amount of money just disappear that it wouldn't be hard to hide it.

But again, keeping that information from reaching the original owners would've prevented all of this.

[lockedout]

This unit sells for 500 bucks, buyer finds 7.5 million cash, attorney reaches out on behalf of the previous owner & nicely offers 1.2 million dollars back in return for all money back.

What would you do?

Keep everything and say nothing.

[derpkitteh]

yeah, i'd just not have told anyone what i found in it.

quietly move the fuck away from the area and never talk about it again. keep all that money for myself.

[Aori]

These storage lockers get auctioned off when the owner of said storage locker doesn't pay the fee to keep it.

So, with 7.5 million dollars, why the fuck was this guy NOT able to pay the fee?

It is probably more along the lines of forgetting. Assuming the story is legit that money is likely dirty, this was probably just one of countless places they hide cash out of sight. There is a lot of old early 1900s mafia money stashed all over the US, particularly in the midwest and forgotten.