Yes, that’s our question … was there really $7.5 Millon in a storage unit? In a safe in a storage unit?
The story is here: https://www.thisisinsider.com/five-hundred-dollar-storage-unit-had-7-million-inside-storage-wars-2018-11 which has the typical characteristics of a possibly made-up story … no name of buyer/seller, no date, no location, no city, no storage unit name/address, no attorney name …
Further, the video shows some stacks and bags of money — suggesting maybe this was $7.5 Million? $7.5 Million in $100 dollar bills stacked and piled tightly would require a minimum of 3 cubic feet — a box just over 17 inches on each side.
The picture above is $1 Million dollars stacked in a more/less square so $7.5 Million dollars would be 7.5 times as much. If these were circulated bills — they would stack requiring even more space.
3 cubic foot safes themselves can easily run $2,000 or more retail — but this entire unit sold for $500? Maybe the safe was in poor shape? Maybe it was hidden? Or was there nothing else in the unit? Not many details appear to be available.
As this story was told, only after the storage unit sold, an attorney for the prior tenant contacted the buyer of the unit. Really? This attorney or tenant only knew of this situation after it sold? Wouldn’t it have been better to pay the delinquent storage fees prior to the auction and keep the entire $7.5 Million?
Too — according to the story — the buyer of the storage unit gave all the money to the previous “owner” except for $1.2 Million. Why did he/she/they do that? Lacking other details, the entire $7.5 Million belonged to the buyer so why give this other entity or anyone else any of it?
With little or no specifics, some other issues we can’t seem to resolve and a tendency for storage auctions on television to be obviously orchestrated, we are suspicious there was not $7.5 Million dollars in a safe in this storage unit, and rather this story was likely concocted in an attempt to increase viewer ratings.
Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, CAI, CAS, AARE has been an auctioneer and certified appraiser for over 30 years. His company’s auctions are located at: Mike Brandly, Auctioneer, RES Auction Services and Goodwill Columbus Car Auction. He serves as Distinguished Faculty at Hondros College, Executive Director of The Ohio Auction School, an Instructor at the National Auctioneers Association’s Designation Academy and America’s Auction Academy. He is faculty at the Certified Auctioneers Institute held at Indiana University and is approved by the The Supreme Court of Ohio for attorney education.
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