Man Finds Safe Containing $7.5M Inside Storage Unit He Bought For $500

He was just getting comfortable with bidding on storage containers that were on auction. Spending money that he didn’t have was a huge gamble when you have no idea what is inside, but there were so many stories out there about people striking it rich – even of some people finding whole classic cars and driving off into the sunset.

So far he had been lucky, managing to sell the contents for just a little over what he had paid for the entire lot. But it was a lot of work and a lot of time going through someone else’s junk, sorting, cleaning and then finding the right buyer. He was almost at the end of his rope. If there was nothing big in this one he was done.

Joe stood outside the container with about 15 to 20 other people eager to rubberneck what was inside the 5 x 15 Unit (75 sq. ft.). These were too big to get a good look inside however because they could store the contents of a 1 bedroom apartment. Ideal for furniture including a couch, chair and small dining set, sporting equipment, bicycles, business merchandise. Not ideal for glancing inside and spending hundreds of dollars on.

The bidding was fun, not exactly what you see on TV which is high drama, shouting, pushing, screaming and general mayhem. But definitely fun, especially when he got into a bidding war with someone. It felt good to win and he warned himself–not for the first time–that he would stick to his budget. Don’t spend what you can’t afford to lose, he didn’t want to learn the hard way.

But he just couldn’t seem to help himself this time around. The container was packed tight with furniture and other goodies he wanted to look a little closer at and some annoying woman behind him kept upping his bid. It started at $100, a hefty starting bid, but the container was awfully full. He bet, she upped it a little, he bet again, and so it continued. How long could this go on?

$350 in and he was adamant, he would be the winner! $400 and she still hadn’t given up, but neither had he. $450, $460, $470… Finally, the bid settled on 500 dollars. He was shattered and shaking. As reality returned he realized exactly what he had done… There had better be something amazing inside that box. He had won!

Everyone but a few drifted away from the site now that a winner had emerged. They had lost interest in the contents because they had not won anything themselves. But a few stayed around to watch the new owner enter the small building. They only wished they had been the ones to win it when they saw what he found.

Joe slowly walked into the 5 x 15 unit. It was packed full of old furniture but enough of a gap between existed for him to walk between the items. He felt sweat prickle the back of his neck and forehead, the furniture alone wouldn’t cover the high price he’d laid out for this unit. There had better be something amazing, and he began looking.

It didn’t jump out at him as it would have in a movie, after all, it was just a dull grey container lying on the floor next to a chest of drawers. But Joe knew what a safe looked like without any fancy CGI to help him. He called up his friends to come out and help him open the safe, even if he looked all day he doubted he would find a key…

One power drill later and they were drilling deep into the lock to force it open, and what they found was beyond belief. Taking the lid off of the opening he was gobsmacked by all the bills lying right at the top. $50 bills in huge stacks. He literally fell over from pure shock. Getting to his feet he started pulling out wad after wad of cold hard cash.

But all things were not going to be peaches and cream for Joe and his huge find. Barely 2 hours into his discovery there was a knock on the door and soon men in uniforms were swarming all over the container. Just what had he gotten himself involved in? he wondered. It could have been anything, I mean just who has this much cash just squashed into a safe?

Joe realized that in his exaltation he had sent photos to his girlfriend and also uploaded the photos of the contents of the safe to pretty much every social media site. No wonder the police were here. He still hadn’t been able to count all the cash, but he knew it was enough to roll in… So far he was up to $1 million. He dragged himself away to talk to one of the officers waiting for him.

All in all, there was $7.5 million stashed away in a few safes around the containers. Everything from nickels to $100 bills and pink slips for cars. There was just one gigantic problem, the original owner had gotten wind of the find and had hired some top-notch lawyers to get back his fortune. Joe was in trouble.

Everything started moving extremely quickly after the police arrived. Joe got a call from the lawyers telling him in no uncertain terms that he must return the money but that he could keep $600,000 as a finders fee. Joe had some quick thinking to do.

After consulting with his friends Joe learned that in the state of California once a unit had been sold, the contents were no longer owned by the delinquent tenant. He had full rights to keep anything in the unit, after all, he had purchased it fair and square. But the Lawyers were not going to back down that easily.

Thinking that they were doing Joe a service, they upped the finders fee to $1,200,000 and they were playing hardball. Who knew what these people were capable of? Joe began wondering just how someone forgets $7.5 million dollars in a delinquent storage rental. Not someone good it seemed. But how bad would things get?

So would he only get 1.2 million? That’s a huge amount of money in anyone’s book, but still not quite like the huge figure that he had just felt in his hands while unpacking wad after wad of money. He didn’t like the fact that he was being strong-armed but there was also the moral dilemma. It was now his money, but he didn’t do a thing to earn it. Perhaps he should give it back? The thought was not sitting well with him.

After much deliberation and amongst near threats, Joe decided that splitting the money straight down the middle would be a fair split. After all, the now previous owners had left the container unpaid for a lot more than a couple of months, in fact, almost a year, without responding to the letters sent by the store owners, and that debt was exactly why the auction had happened.

A storage owner says, “I really don’t make much money out of auctions – it’s to try to cover our expense. 90 percent of the time I don’t cover my losses. One unit may have cost me $600 and the person bids at $400, so my revenue has still suffered a loss.” “An unpaid unit does not make any money. The sooner the delinquent tenant can be moved out, the sooner a paying tenant can move in.”