Human Interest Man Finds $7.5 Million in Storage Unit He Bought for Just $500 From 'Storage Wars' Star Dan Dotson This story has a happy ending for everyone involved! By Jason Hahn Jason Hahn Jason Hahn is a former Human Interest and Sports Reporter for PEOPLE. He started at PEOPLE's Los Angeles Bureau as a writer and reporter in 2017 and interviewed the likes of Kobe Bryant, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Brady. He has a B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's degree in Journalism from Columbia University. He previously worked for Complex Magazine in New York City. People Editorial Guidelines Published on November 23, 2018 06:12 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Talk about a return on investment! While attending a charity event on November 1, Dan Dotson — who operates his own auction house and frequently stars in Storage Wars on A&E — says he was approached by a woman who told him a family friend had recently purchased a storage unit he had auctioned off and had quite the story to tell in the days that followed. Turns out, the man, who was a friend of the woman’s husband, found a mysterious safe in the storage shed that held the surprise of a lifetime. “The first person they called to open the safe, I guess, couldn’t, or didn’t, so they called a second person,” Dotson recalled in a video posted to Facebook on November 5. “When that person opened it up, inside the safe — normally they’re empty, but this time it wasn’t empty— [and] it had $7.5 million cash inside.” While it was a potentially life-changing discovery for the unit’s buyer, it was also meant someone out there had just lost an enormous amount of money. But, fortunately, this story has a happy ending for everyone involved. Dotson revealed that when the original owners of the unit found out that it had been sold — with their cash still inside — they quickly contacted their attorney to negotiate a deal with the new owner. First, the original owners offered $600,000 to return the money, but then settled on a deal that saw the man return the money for a $1.2 million reward. While he didn’t keep the full amount, the man still came out with $1,499,500 in profit on a measly $500 investment. Dotson, and his wife, Laura, discussed what they would have done had they been the ones to come across that huge sum of cold hard cash. A&E Toddler Accidentally Shreds Up $1000 of His Parents Savings “I don’t feel like it’d be clean money,” Laura said in the couple’s Facebook video. Whether he would take the $1.2 million reward, Dotson said he would, partially because he wouldn’t want to find out how far the former owners would go to get their money back. “I wouldn’t ask a damn thing,” he explained. “$7.5 million is a lot of money… but that’s a lot of running, too.”