Storage Wars star Dusty Riach is recalling former costar Darrell Sheets’ last “odd” interaction before his untimely death.
“It wasn’t the buying and selling that was odd. It was really the interaction,” Riach exclusively told Us Weekly on Sunday, April 26. “Because Darrell is not the type of person to just roll over on an offer. He was a fighter for the last dollar in any deal. And he was asking a pretty substantial amount of money for a deal that one of my friends was buying from him. And then my friend kind of shot him quite a large deficit off of what he was asking. And Darrell just was like, ‘Yeah, that’s great.’”
Riach continued, “My friend was just like, ‘That’s kind of weird,’ but didn’t think anything of it at the time. For Darrell not to come back at you, it’s just kind of weird. I had no idea, and my friend hadn’t told me until after we found out what happened [to Sheets]. My friend said that it felt like he was tying up his affairs,” adding that Sheets even called him to ensure the check would clear.
“I think Daryl was asking $125,000 and my friend gave him $50,000 [for an estate collection],” he added. “For him to ask that much and then my friend to offer him that — [without Darrell saying] give me $60,000, or like, pushing for an extra five grand … Darrell said yep, that’s fine.
“Even the last watch deal I did with Darrell, we were bickering over like, $50 with each other. So I would say this was 110 percent fully out of character for him.”
Us confirmed on Wednesday, April 22, that Sheets died by an apparent suicide. He was 67.
A spokesperson for the Lake Havasu City Police Department told Us that authorities responded to a call in the early morning hours on Wednesday. Officers were dispatched to an Arizona residence, where they discovered the reality star’s body.
An official cause of death has not been confirmed as the incident is under active investigation.
Riach said that during the “last deal” he made with Darrell the pair were “bickering over, like, $50 with each other,” so he believes that final “odd” interaction was “110 percent fully out of character” for Darrell.
“I think Daryl was asking $125,000 and my friend gave him $50,000,” he continued. “For him to ask that much and then my friend to offer him that — [without Darrell saying] give me $60,000, or like, pushing for an extra five grand … Darrell said yep, that’s fine.”
Riach, who say Sheets a couple months ago, told Us that he considered Darrell a “good friend,” adding that the pair was “always wheeling and dealing.”
“He came to the swap meet where I sell and we had lunch,” he recalled. “Off camera we were friends, you know, we could talk and to me he was the strongest person. You could say whatever you wanted to him and he would say whatever he wanted back to you.”
He continued, “We were just good friends like that, you know? For this whole thing to happen is just such a shocker for me.”
Riach remembers their last meeting fondly, which made the tragic news that much harder to believe.
“Darrell was one of the funnest people to eat with. People would recognize him quite a bit wherever we would go. He was a really fun guy,” he said. “I don’t think I ever had a phone call with him or [a] talk [with] him where it didn’t start out with him messing with me in some way shape or form or making something up or a joke.”
He added, “I didn’t believe [the news], so much [so] that I called our producers of the show. And I had to ask, ‘Is this real?’ Darrell was so good at joking and being a certain way all the time that, like, if there was something wrong with him, you would have never known.”
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