This Is What Storage Wars' Dave Hester Is Doing Now

A&E's smash-hit reality series "Storage Wars" saw three seasons of chaotic energy with the recruitment of auctioneer Dave Hester, a modern-day treasure hunter with an eye for good finds and a penchant for playing the villain archetype. While in search for valuable knick-knacks within the cramped spaces of abandoned, auctioned-off storage lockers, Hester was bound to do two things: drive up locker prices, and utter his signature (and trademarked) catch-phrase "Yuuup!" each episode.

According to Hester's website, he learned the trade of finding and reselling valuable items from his parents, as the family took to the business to supplement their income. By the time he was 14, he was buying items at auctions like machinery and tools to resell, and since 1986 he's been bidding on storage units at auctions and hunting through peoples' abandoned stuff to find treasure. From there, he started buying for auction houses and eventually became an auctioneer. Eventually becoming the proprietor of the Newport Consignment Gallery, later named Rags to Riches Thrift Store, Hester was an expert in his field by the time A&E came knocking in 2010, but the reality of a reality show wasn't something he bargained for. 

Dave Hester worked on the show for three seasons and was slated to do another, but eventually, he realized producers were faking much of the action on the series by planting certain finds and making up some narrative elements to add to the drama. According to court documents obtained by TMZ, in 2012 Hester went to the producers of the series to say he was not "comfortable participating in this charade."

He alleged that "Storage Wars" interviews were faked and that producers would schedule item appraisals sometimes weeks ahead of time before it appeared on the show. Per the lawsuit, Hester claimed, "The truth is that Defendants regularly salt or plant the storage lockers that are the subject of the auctions portrayed on the Series with valuable or unusual items to create drama and suspense for the show. Defendants have even gone so far as to stage entire storage units, and will enlist the cooperation of the owners of the storage facilities to stage entire units."

Shortly after going to executives with his concerns, Hester was fired from the show. He then sued Original Productions and A&E Networks for $750,000 for wrongful termination and breach of contract. In March 2013, a judge ordered Dave to pay $122,000 for the defendants' legal dues, International Business Times reports. The next year, Hester settled out of court in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. A&E also denied the accusations, saying, "There is no staging involved. The items uncovered in the storage units are the actual items featured on the show," via the Law Office of William M. Julien, P.A.  However, it seems as if there were no hard feelings following the litigation, as Hester eventually rejoined the series from 2014 to 2018.

As previously mentioned, at the start of the series, Hester owned Newport Consignment Gallery in Costa Mesa, California, which was later named the Rags To Riches thrift store, but closed the shops in June 2012, per his website. He's currently the owner and operator of his own auction house, Dave Hester Auctions. He now has 35 years of experience under his belt, albeit some of them rocky ones in regards to interpersonal relationships within the industry, as ascertained by yelp reviews for both the Newport Consignment Store and Dave Hester Auctions, and his prickliness on the show where he'd refer to some of his costars as "pukes." In an interview with online storage auctions in 2015, he said of the people he worked with on "Storage Wars," "The other cast members can't even tie their shoes let alone brand themselves." 

Hester went on to say that he doesn't think about "Storage Wars" anymore, but if he could change anything about his time on the show it would be "not to have spent time on 'Storage Wars.'" He thinks he was portrayed as a heel for "ratings," but said it may surprise people that he's "a great guy." "To know me is to love me," he said. While he doesn't think he'll ever do another reality show, he says "Never say never" when it comes to owning another thrift store. 

In 2020 Dave Hester lost a legal battle with global storage giant Public Storage after a back-and-forth that basically started with a computer error. According to Legal Newsline, that year, Hester bought a storage unit and its contents for $11,800, but shortly after he secured the sale, a Public Storage worker found a receipt proving the storage unit's owner was actually square with their payments and the unit should not have been put up for sale.

Public Storage reimbursed Hester, but he wasn't satisfied with that, and he sued for breach of contract. The case gets into the weeds regarding null and void clauses and sales, but the end result was that a judge sided with Public Storage, concluding, "He contends there is a triable issue of fact as to whether the threat of this loss constitutes economic duress. We find no triable issue of fact exists."

Amid the wild success of "Storage Wars" Dave Hester was rushed to the hospital in November 2018 after he was having a hard time breathing and wasn't feeling well in the overnight hours. It turned out, he had a hemorrhagic stroke, the result of high blood pressure and sleep apnea, per TMZ. Hospital tests showed his apnea was so bad that within just one hour he would stop breathing upward of 100 times. That lack of oxygen coupled with hypertension led to the stroke. Hester was lucky, though. He spent some time in intensive care, followed by several months in recovery, relearning basic life tasks like walking and showering. 

He eventually got his heath well enough to continue his life's work of finding items of worth and flipping them to the highest bidders. He's also filled his time with things he likes doing, which, judging from his Instagram page, include going to baseball games, hanging out with his pugs, and eating at various restaurants. In January 2024, Hester posted a video of himself at an eatery with several platters of sushi, saying, "Hey guys. It's the yuuuup man. Been in the hospital for a while so if you haven't heard from me I'm finally home. I'm able to eat normal food, and this sure looks a lot better than the hospital food. Mmm mmm good."