STORAGE Wars legend Darrell Sheets left behind a chilling suicide note blaming online bullying before taking his own life.
Newly released police documents have shed shocking new light on the 66-year-old’s death as police records reveal his final days.
Darrell died at 67 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the US Sun confirmed in April.
Officials responded to reports of a deceased person at Darrell’s home at 2am on April 22, according to a statement from Lake Havasu City Police Department obtained by The U.S. Sun.
He was pronounced dead at the scene after his girlfriend called 911 reporting she had heard a gunshot
Investigators have found a handwritten note hidden inside a black basket in a bathroom closet near where he was found dead.
According to the report, obtained by TMZ, detectives said the note appeared to reference the online abuse Darrell had been facing
Police summarised the message as reading: “I could not take anymore the Facebook bulling, f*** you [redacted]”.
Investigators also noted the handwriting appeared shaky.
The heartbreaking discovery came as cops pieced together Darrell’s final hours, revealing a disturbing picture of stress, sleepless nights and family turmoil before the fatal gunshot.
Darrell’s girlfriend told investigators he had struggled to sleep on the night he died and got out of bed in the early hours before walking into the doorway of his office
She said he told her to “go back to bed” – before moments later a single gunshot rang out.
Police records also reveal growing family tension in the days before his death.
Darrell’s girlfriend said his son had recently visited and the pair became embroiled in a heated argument over “family drama” before he left.
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
She claimed the situation worsened after Darrell received text messages from his daughter-in-law accusing her of being suspicious and stealing money from him.
The messages allegedly left the reality star visibly upset.
In a follow-up interview, his girlfriend told detectives the arguments between Darrell and his son became so intense she left the house after the son was yelling at him.
She claimed Darrell later told her he did not want to be alone with his son and had been “sad as hell” following the confrontation, believing he had let him down.
Investigators also revealed Darrell had been battling severe insomnia for months and was under huge pressure in the run-up to his death.
His girlfriend said he often struggled to sleep and was dealing with overwhelming stress – but insisted he had never spoken about harming himself and that their relationship remained strong.
The medical examiner later ruled his death a suicide.
Following the tragedy, his son Brandon Sheets broke his silence with an emotional tribute, calling Darrell “the best dad a son could ask for”.
He also revealed plans to reopen his father’s Arizona store, Show Me Your Junk, to continue the family legacy.
The mention of Facebook bullying in Darrell’s final note has also raised fresh questions, after fellow Storage Wars star Rene Nezhoda previously claimed Darrell had been facing relentless online harassment before his death.
Police investigated the bullying claims as they worked to understand what led to the TV star’s devastating final moments.
Darrell appeared on Storage Wars as a main castmember from 2010 to 2021 and was known as “The Gambler” for his high-risk purchases.
He continued to make appearances on seasons 14 and 15 as a guest buyer before leaving the show for good.
Darrell was joined by his son, Brandon, for nine seasons on Storage Wars.
Darrell also made appearances on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and on Rachael Ray’s cooking show.
After retiring from Storage Wars, he moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona, where he operated an antique shop called Show Me Your Junk.
He previously had health issues, including a heart attack in 2019 that he had surgery to recover from.
UK: For help and support, call the Samaritans for free from a UK phone, completely anonymously, on 116 123 or go to samaritans.org.
US: If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.
Visitors look around an LG Energy Solution booth at the InterBattery 2021 at COEX in Seoul, South Korea. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
July 3 (Asia Today) — A U.S. battery joint venture between South Korea’s LG Energy Solution and Honda has begun mass-producing lithium-ion cells for energy storage systems at its Ohio plant, the company said.
L-H Battery Company began production Thursday at its factory in Jeffersonville, Fayette County.
The cells will be supplied through LG Energy Solution Vertech, the South Korean company’s North American energy-storage system integration subsidiary.
They are expected to be used in utility power grids as well as commercial, industrial and residential energy-storage systems across the United States.
The Ohio plant was originally built primarily to manufacture batteries for Honda electric vehicles.
The partners adjusted the factory’s production strategy as growth in the electric-vehicle market slowed and changes in the U.S. regulatory and policy environment increased uncertainty for automakers and battery manufacturers.
The joint venture decided to prioritize the faster-growing energy-storage market while maintaining the flexibility to produce cells for other applications.
It plans to consider manufacturing batteries for hybrid-electric vehicles at the plant as market conditions evolve.
Honda said in May that it would convert part of the joint venture’s electric-vehicle battery production lines to make batteries for hybrid vehicles.
The company also said it would use the Ohio battery facilities for other applications as it restructures its North American vehicle and battery production network.
Honda canceled plans in March to develop and launch three electric-vehicle models that had been scheduled for production in North America, citing changes in the business environment.
The start of storage-battery production marks a significant step in LG Energy Solution’s strategy to manufacture more energy-storage products within North America.
Demand is rising as utilities add renewable-energy capacity and seek batteries that can store electricity when supply exceeds consumption.
Artificial intelligence data centers are also increasing electricity demand and creating a need for additional power-generation, transmission and storage infrastructure.
Energy-storage systems can help stabilize power grids by storing electricity during periods of low demand and releasing it when demand rises.
LG Energy Solution has been converting or adapting electric-vehicle battery facilities to produce storage batteries as manufacturers respond to slower electric-vehicle growth.
The company plans to operate five energy-storage battery manufacturing sites in North America.
The network includes plants in Holland and Lansing, Mich., the NextStar Energy facility in Windsor, Ontario, the Ultium Cells factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., and the L-H Battery Company plant in Ohio.
LG Energy Solution said it aims to secure more than 50 gigawatt-hours of annual energy-storage battery production capacity in North America by the end of 2026.
The company said batteries manufactured in Ohio will support projects serving power grids, businesses and homes.
BloombergNEF has projected that the U.S. energy-storage market could expand to 485 gigawatt-hours in 2030 and 976 gigawatt-hours in 2035.
“Energy storage systems are an important future business for L-H Battery Company and will become a core business pillar along with the production of battery cells for hybrid-electric vehicles,” L-H Battery Company Chief Executive Officer Koo Ja-hoon said.
Chief Operating Officer Rick Riggle said the company has hired employees and begun production since the joint venture was established in 2023.
“This start of mass production is significant because it goes beyond simply operating a plant and establishes a stable production base for our North American business,” Riggle said.
LG Energy Solution and Honda formally established L-H Battery Company in 2023 to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in Ohio.
The joint venture was initially designed to support Honda’s expanding electric-vehicle production in North America.
The revised production strategy allows the companies to use the plant for energy storage and hybrid vehicles while retaining the ability to respond if electric-vehicle demand recovers.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260703010001209
Olemedia/E+ via Getty Images
The lithium industry is growing more optimistic about a market recovery as accelerating demand for battery storage systems helps offset a slowdown in electric vehicles, leading producers said this week at a key industry conference, Reuters reported.
“The period of market overcorrection is over. Energy
The US naval blockade of Iranian ports and the Strait of Hormuz, in place since April 13, has raised concerns that Iran could run out of crude oil storage capacity and be forced to curb production.
Bloomberg reported analysis on Tuesday from the data and analytics company Kpler suggesting Iran could run out of crude storage in 12 to 22 days if the blockade persists.
Last week, United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed that storage capacity at Kharg Island, where most of Iran’s oil is exported, would be full “in a matter of days”.
So how quickly could Iran run out of oil storage, and why does it matter?
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow channel that connects the Gulf to the open ocean. It spans the territorial waters of Iran on its northern side and Oman on its southern side. It is not in international waters.
During peacetime, 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies are shipped through the corridor.
Two days after the US and Israel launched their first air strikes in their war on Iran on February 28, Ebrahim Jabari, a senior adviser to the commander in chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), announced that the strait was “closed”. If any vessels tried to pass through, he said, the IRGC and the navy would “set those ships ablaze”.
As the war has dragged on and negotiations have failed to achieve a settlement, Iran has at times in the past two months allowed some “friendly” ships and those that pay tolls to pass. It is currently refusing to allow any foreign-flagged ships, including those previously deemed friendly, to pass until the US lifts its own naval blockade.
Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said on April 19 that the “security of the Strait of Hormuz is not free”.
“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” he wrote in a post on X.
“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” he added. “Stability in global fuel prices depends on a guaranteed and lasting end to the economic and military pressure against Iran and its allies.”
Since the US naval blockade on the strait began, the US has opened fire on and taken control of an Iranian-flagged tanker near the Strait of Hormuz while also redirecting vessels on the high seas transporting cargo to or from Iran. Iran’s armed forces have denounced these actions as “an illegal act” that “amounts to piracy”.
The US naval blockade of the strait means that Iran might have to store the oil it produces.
Iran is the third largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia and Iraq and exports 90 percent of its crude oil via Kharg Island in the Gulf for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US is eager to curb Iran’s oil revenues, which have risen since Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz to other shipping. This is the primary motive behind Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports.
Iran exported 1.84 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in March and shipped 1.71 million bpd in April, compared with an average of 1.68 million bpd in 2025, according to Kpler.
However, the US naval blockade since mid-April now means that most of its exports are having to be stored instead.
Bessent wrote in an X post on April 22: “In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in.”
“Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.”
Iran’s domestic refineries have a production capacity of 2.6 million bpd, according to the energy consultancy Facts Global Energy.
Satellite data show the amount of oil Iran has in storage has risen sharply since the US blockade began, and in the days after the US tightened it, stocks were rising so fast that it appeared Iran had been barely able to export any oil at all.
From April 13 to April 21, data showed that stocks rose by more than 6 million barrels, according to the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP). From April 17 to April 21, the stock increased very rapidly, growing by 1.7 bpd.
As of April 20, the storage tanks at Kharg were about 74 percent full after the island alone had taken on about 3 million extra barrels of oil, the CGEP reported.
Generally, oil companies avoid filling their storage beyond 80 percent capacity to balance safety, emissions control and flexibility.
However, Iran and other oil producing countries have exceeded this limit before, for instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Kharg island’s stocks reached close to 90 percent capacity, an all-time high.
Iran also has some crude oil storage capacity in the form of “floating tanks”, or parked ships. About 127 million barrels can be stored in this way, Frederic Schneider, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera in an interview on April 14.
Muyu Xu, a senior crude oil analyst at Kpler, told Al Jazeera that the blockade could eventually force Iran to cut production.
“However, given there is still available storage capacity onshore (roughly covering 20 days of Iran’s current production), we expect any production reduction to be gradual over the coming week with a higher likelihood of acceleration into May,” she said.
Analysis by CGEP nonresident fellow Antoine Halff echoed this. Halff wrote in an article published by CGEP on Tuesday that it may be some time before the US blockade causes Iran to shut off its production “in a big way”.
However, Halff added, Iran may still choose to halt production “fairly aggressively” but this “would be more by choice than by necessity”.
He explained: “Doing so would have the advantage of providing Iran with relatively ample spare storage capacity after the shutdown and would allow for a smoother restart of operations once conditions permit, and the constraint is relaxed, thus minimising adverse impacts from the blockade on longer-term supply.”
Halting oil production risks damaging underground reservoirs by reducing reservoir pressure, allowing water or gas to encroach into producing layers and changing patterns of oil flow. This can make some oil harder or more expensive to recover later, experts said.
Restarting the process of oil production can also be slow and costly, involving repairs of corroded equipment or unclogging pipelines.
Halting production would also cause Iran’s export revenues to drop. However, analysts said that for a few months, Iran can continue to earn revenue from oil that is already in transit at sea.
Kenneth Katzman, former Iran analyst at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, DC, said Iran is not exporting new oil during the US blockade of Iranian ports but Tehran has 160 million to 170 million barrels of oil on ships around the world currently.
“Storage Wars” star Darrell Sheets was found dead by police on Wednesday in Lake Havasu City, Ariz. He was 67.
According to Variety, which obtained a report from the Lake Havasu City Police Department, Sheets died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The statement said that on Wednesday around 2 a.m., officers were dispatched to Sheets’ home on Chandler Drive after reports of a deceased individual.
“Upon arrival, officers located a male subject who suffered from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The male was pronounced deceased on scene and the Lake Havasu City Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit was notified and responded to the scene to assume the investigation,” the statement read.
“The body was ultimately turned over to the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s office for further investigation,” the release continued.
Police said that they identified the man as Sheets and that his family had been notified. “This incident remains under active investigation, and additional information will be released as it becomes available.”
Sheets appeared across 15 seasons of the popular A&E reality show “Storage Wars” from 2010 to 2023. His son, Brandon Sheets, was also a cast member, and the father-son duo was often considered the heart of the show. Darrell would use his not-so-stealthy approach when bidding on storage lockers that he was willing to bet contained what he would describe as “wow factor” treasures.
“I’m a buyer by trade. I love buying storage sheds. It’s my addiction,” he said on the series. “I’m basically known for taking the good stuff and just getting the heck out of here.”
According to Sheets’ cast bio, the antiques enthusiast loved to brag about “four Picassos and the world’s most lucrative comic book collection” that he scored through storage auctions. He told The Times in 2015 that he once invested in a locker and discovered pieces of original artwork by Frank Gutierrez that he said appraised for about $300,000, making for the biggest take in the TV show’s then-five-year history.
Rene Nezhoda, another “Storage Wars” cast member who was often considered Sheets’ rival due to their onscreen antics, posted on Instagram after news of Sheets’ death broke and called out cyberbullies.
“Unfortunately, Darrell Sheets took his own life,” Nezhoda said. “I know a lot of you guys think we hated each other because we competed a lot on the show, and you know, we had our moments. We had our run-ins, but that’s because we were both competitors, right?
“Deep down, me and Darrell were friends. We talked every now and then. He is a very hard worker that cared more than anyone I’ve probably ever met about their family, about his son, about [his granddaughter] Zoie.”
Nezhoda said that Sheets had someone “really, really tormenting” him on social media.
The “Storage Wars” alum then addressed cyberbullies for their treatment of public figures, saying, “Just because you watch us on television doesn’t mean you know us. You never know what demons somebody faces.”
