“Storage Wars” cast members Laura and Dan Dotson claim that prior to Darrell Sheets’ tragic death at age 67, the reality star feared for his life due to alleged cyberbullying.
“His family told us that this has been happening for three years,” Laura told Us Weekly on Friday. “[It happens to] even strong men that you think aren’t gonna get their feelings hurt. Cyberbullying is a real thing. This made him feel less than, and it really obviously bothered him. He was terrified for his life [and] for the people around him. He didn’t know why he was being targeted.”
Sheets was found dead in his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, on Wednesday.
According to a press release from the Lake Havasu City Police Department, the business owner died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Authorities said Sheets was pronounced dead at the scene and his body was turned over to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office for “further investigation.”
“He had other things also,” Laura — who appeared on the A&E hit alongside her husband Dan and Sheets prior to his 2023 retirement — continued.
She added that “his health and certain things” could have also “contributed” to his passing.
“Relationships, love interests and stuff that would go up and down, but [he] truly, truly was a wonderful, loving person who believed in God,” Laura detailed.
The couple also reflected on losing another friend to suicide — with Dan remembering that Sheets was in disbelief.
“He says, ‘I can’t believe anybody that could do that,’” Laura recalled. “‘They must have so much pain.’ So it was so hard for us to really believe that this happened.”
Just weeks before his death, Sheets spoke out about the alleged cyberbullies in a Facebook post, per Us Weekly.
“I have been hacked by a very evil person,” he penned in March. “The clown. [The posts] are not done by me, they are being done by … very evil people. I’m not gay, I have made no posts about any children’s arcade owner, etc. I’m extremely sorry and sick over this.”
Sheets said that while it wasn’t him, “people are showing up” to his work wanting to “harm” him.
“The police are aware of this but [their] hands are tied because Facebook allows this and it is very bad,” he wrote.
Allegedly, the television personality’s “cyberbully stalker” had harassed others in the area as well.
“He has been going after other small businesses in town and harassing them, using my name,” Sheets claimed. “It is not me! He has extorted money from many people in this town acting like a handyman. This has been going on for three years with him, and the things he says are very damaging. This is a felony called cyberbullying.”
Sergeant Kyle Ridgway, public information officer for the Lake Havasu City Police Department in Arizona, told Page Six Wednesday, “We are aware of these cyberbullying accusations and that is a part of the active investigation.”
Prior to his passing, Sheets had retired to Arizona and ran the antique shop Havasu Show Me Your Junk.
The A&E star was a fan-favorite on “Storage Wars,” a show that follows professional buyers who bid on unknown contents found in abandoned storage units.
Sheets was featured in 163 episodes of the series between 2010 and 2023 alongside his son Brandon.
While on the series, he earned the nickname “The Gambler” due to his predilection to overbid for units based on a gut instinct.
