Key Points
Storage Wars star Rene Nezhoda opened up about the cyberbullying he says his late costar Darrell Sheets experienced before his death at 67.
“He kind of withdrew from social media,” Nezhoda said in a new interview.
Sheets was found dead at a residence in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., on April 22.
Storage Wars star Rene Nezhoda is opening up about the death of his late costar Darrell Sheets and the alleged cyberbullying he endured before he died.
“He was impersonating him with phone calls, messages, emails, websites,” Nezhoda said of the unnamed social media user allegedly harassing Sheets in an interview with Us Weekly published on Friday, days after police confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that they are looking into allegations that the reality TV star had been bullied online.
“He flat out said, ‘I’m gonna ruin you,'” Nezhoda added. “I mean, all you have to do is go to Darrell’s last few messages on Facebook.”
He said the experience affected Sheets so much that “he kind of withdrew from social media.”
“He even said, I think on March 9, ‘Hey guys, I’m happy. Everything is great — if anything happens to me, look at these people. These are the people,'” Nezhoda claimed. “And then he posted a bunch of messages [about it]. And a month later we find him dead … I am 50/50 if he even did that [to himself]. I don’t know.”
Darrell Sheets in 2012
Credit: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
In a Facebook post shared on March 9, Sheets said he had been “hacked by a very evil person.”
“The clown. [The posts] are not done by me, they are being done by … very evil people,” he wrote. “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 claimed that the alleged harassers “ruined” him. “People are showing up to my work and wanting to harm me. The police are aware of this, but [their] hands are tied because Facebook allows this, and it is very bad.”
The reality TV alum’s costar Dave Hester said he and other cast members have also been bullied online. “We’ve all had a little bit of that,” Hester Us Weekly. “We’ve been at this 16, 17 years, and so there’s always people [who] want to get on the internet and say rude things, but I don’t even pay attention to it. I don’t understand cyberbullying because when people have something bad to say, I don’t even waste my time. If you wanna support me, that’s great. You don’t want to support me, that’s fine too. It doesn’t bother me.”
While Nezhoda said he has endured his share of bullying online, he told the outlet that he “didn’t take it that serious, because that’s something we all deal with every day. So when we hear that, we take it with a grain of salt.”
However, with Sheets, he said, it was a different story. “He did tell me that this person is really doing a lot of stuff, but I just didn’t take it as serious, or was as concerned, because it’s just part of it,” Nezhoda claimed.
Officers found Sheets dead at 67 of an apparent suicide in a residence in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., at around 2 a.m. local time on Wednesday, the Lake Havasu City Police Department confirmed in a news release.
Sheets’ body was turned over to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s office for further investigation. Police noted the incident remains under active investigation and have asked for anyone with information to contact the LHCPD at 928-855-1171.
The cast of ‘Storage Wars’ in 2010
Credit: Cinema Vehicle Services/Kobal/Shutterstock
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Sheets appeared on the first 15 seasons of the long-running A&E series, which follows professional buyers bidding on storage lockers up for auction in search of valuable treasures. In one episode, he famously found a letter from President Abraham Lincoln. Nicknamed “The Gambler,” he was known for his catchphrase, “This is the WOW factor!”
Sheets left Storage Wars in 2023 and opened an antique shop in Arizona called Havasu Show Me Your Junk.
Following his death, A&E said in a statement to Entertainment Weekly, “We are saddened by the passing of a beloved member of our Storage Wars family, Darrell ‘The Gambler’ Sheets. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health challenges, emotional distress, or substance use problems, or just needs to talk, call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org 24/7.
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