A lucky bargain hunter who bought a storage unit for $500 opened it up to find a safe containing $7.5million inside. The find was revealed by Storage Wars TV show star Dan Dotson and his wife Laura. Dan explained that a lady came over to him while at the Cars, Stars and Rock N’ Roll charity auction event in Indio, California, and said she had a story to tell him. In a video on Twitter Dan explained the lady said: ‘My husband works for a guy and he bought a unit from you for $500 and it had a safe in it.
‘The first person that they called to open the safe couldn’t, or didn’t. ‘They called a second person and when that person opened it up … inside the safe they’re normally empty, but this time it wasn’t empty. It had $7.5million cash inside.’ After the discovery was made Dan said things got complicated and the new owners were contacted by an attorney representing the original owners of the unit.
He told the Blast that the woman claimed the new owner was offered a $600,000 reward for the return of the cash. The new owners reportedly declined, but did accept a second offer to keep $1.2 million and give back the other $6.3 million of the find. The Storage Wars star did not disclose the identity of the lucky buyer of the unit or the woman who told him. He also didn’t say when or where it had been purchased. There are many other intriguing details he did not reveal to fans online, such as why there was an apparently abandoned safe inside, who owned the storage space originally or where the money came from.
Dan and Laura asked their followers what they’d do with the money – if they’d keep it or give it back. Writing on Facebook they said: ‘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?’
Hundreds of people responded to the post on Facebook and Twitter, debating what the correct thing to do was. One person wrote: ‘If they had that much money, why didn’t they pay for the storage unit? Why would you put money in there anyway.’ Another said: ‘I’d keep it! Why the heck didn’t they claim it, why the heck would they let it sit until someone bought the locker?’