Dave Hester Sues Storage Wars, Claims Show a ‘Fraud on the Public’
via A&E’s ‘Storage Wars’ Sued; Called “Fraud” By Cast Member – Deadline.com.
Storage Wars star Dave Hester today sued A&E and the producers of the reality show, calling it a staged “fraud on the public” Represented by attorney Marty Singer in his suit (read it here) Hester is seeking more that $3.75 million in damages and fees on five counts from the network and Original Productions for their actions and for firing him from the show. “When Plaintiff David Hester (“Hester”) complained to producers that A&E’s fraudulent conduct of salting and staging the storage lockers was possibly illegal, he was fired from the Series. As further evidence of Defendants’ outrageous conduct, they purported to rescind their written exercise of an option retaining Hester’s services this coming season,” says the 14-page complaint.
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And I suppose that professional wrestling isn’t real either.
I’m (yawn…) shocked.
Somebody thought it was real? Who woulda thunk that?
Wait, you mean Dave Hester is not the total douche he seems to be, it’s all just for the show?
Did anyone actually think that show was real? The acting in those “fights” was so bad it was obvious.
It would be so nice if they’d get back to doing real programs again.
Then just where am I going to unload this crate I just got full of dilithium crystals?
I’ve seen the show numerous times, and of course it’s not entirely authentic. Typically the one guy (Barry) buys a locker and fishes through it, finding one or two items to try and sell. Nothing is ever said about what he does with the rest of the stuff. The other 3 participants in the show all have businesses where they sell their stuff, one guy operating at swap meets, the other two out of storefronts. The hint that the show isn’t completely authentic is that they never find certain items: pornography, sex toys, firearms, etc. I know these things are regularly found in abandoned storage lockers; there’s another similar series on one of the other cable channels that follows 2 guys who buy lockers, and they find guns, antique and modern, constantly. So clearly it’s edited down from what they actually find; it’d take more than a half hour to go through one of these lockers, and the show typically focuses on 3 lockers, with time for the auctions themselves and the “research” afterwards, which typically involves going to an “expert” to find out what something’s worth.
So we know that the stories are massaged a bit, that they’re not completely real. It’s a reality show, and they’re all like this. If you put six people in a house for a month, and make a 1-hour episode out of each week they’re there, you’re going to miss more of these people’s lives than you see. The allegations that Dave Hester makes in the show, however, are on another level. He alleges that stuff was “planted” in lockers in some fashion. If this was done before the auction started, it would be difficult to imagine the producers doing this. There typically are a dozen bidders in these auctions, and of course the 4 participants in the show don’t win all the auctions–just the ones that the show highlights. If they planted an item in a locker, they’d have to somehow make sure one of the stars won it, which could seriously impact their budget, if one of the people who wasn’t participating just bid up the locker for some reason. Also, the people who conduct the auctions on the show are more or less under a professional obligation to do things right–if they rigged the auctions in any way, they’d be in serious trouble, at the least losing their business. In addition, Hester himself, in the lawsuit, can’t resist bragging about an improbable find that he made (a $155,000 painting he found in a locker he bought for $750). They all have stories like this–baseball card collections, rare antiques and the like.
Btw, of the 4 main characters (yes, they’re characters, based in reality, but no doubt exaggerated for effect) in Storage Wars, Hester’s by far the biggest jerk of the 4. It sounds like the character was more true to life than anyone thought, they had enough of his crap, he mouthed off about the show and got fired, and now he’s suing.
Next we’ll find out that “Amish Mafia” is scripted.
Snork!
And yet, Bob Owens thinks “Doomsday Preppers” is real enough to be disgusted and appalled by it.
In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, “Eh, what maroon!”
Anytime a camera is turned on, “reality” is curved.
Throw some money in there, and reality gets curved even more.
Funhouse mirrors are more accurate reflections of reality than any of this nonsense.
Hmm….having checked out the show now, and after giving it due consideration and thought, I have to say I’m tempted to wish this jerk success in his lawsuit.
Imagine that Brandy character losing the shirt off of HER back!
So since Dave knew about it all along but waited until he got millions from the show, doesn’t that make him an accessory to the crime?