Featured Image Credit: Instagram/darrellgambler
Topics: Mental Health, Celebrity, US News
William Morgan
Topics: Mental Health, Celebrity, US News
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Reality TV star Darrell Sheets shared a number of disturbing accusations about identity theft and stalking with his fellow residents in the months before his death.
The former Storage Wars bidder known as 'The Gambler', who retired from the A&E show in 2023 after appearing in 15 seasons of the worldwide smash hit, was found dead at his home in the early hours of Wednesday (April 22).
A police report announcing his death revealed that officers had been called to his property in Lake Havasu City at around 2am yesterday, after receiving a report of a dead body. There, they found Sheets, 67, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.
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While officers believe the wound to have been self-inflicted, they have confirmed that unearthed allegations about bullying are forming part of their inquiry. They told Page Six: "We are aware of these cyberbullying accusations and that is a part of the active investigation.”
But in previously unreported posts from January and March this year, the 67-year-old reality TV star shared some of these allegations directly with his fellow Lake Havasu citizens in a community Facebook group.
"My apologies to all people in Lake Havasu, my identity has been stolen and it is not me," a post in January starts, where he names two individuals that he alleges were 'attacking me with hundreds of negative posts on people and their businesses'.
He claimed that the pair had been pretending to be him, calling them 'very sick people' who 'bully small-time restaurant' owners. Referring to one of the two people, who we are not naming, Sheets said: "I banned him from being in my shop because of what him and [other individual] do to people."
The post also claimed that Sheets had contacted the FBI about the issue, who he said had OKed him sharing the warning post with his fellow residents. Sheets also said that he wanted to pursue felonies for '[stalking] and harassing, and assuming my identity'.
He added that 'these people belong in jail,' but according to a post two months later, the problem had not gone away for 'The Gambler'.
"[Once] again people of Havasu, I have been hacked by a very evil person," Sheets' post to the community in March reads. He confirms that he believes the same two individuals are behind posts being sent to people in Lake Havasu.
Responding to some of the posts he alleges were being sent by the pair, Sheets said: "These are very evil people, I’m not gay, I have made no post about any children’s arcade owner etc."
Sharing some of the worry that these internet posts were putting him through, Sheets added: "I’m extremely sorry and sick over this, these people have ruined me.
"People are showing up to my work and wanting to harm me, the police are aware of this."
He then says 'if something happens to me it was', followed by the names of the two individuals we are not naming, pending police confirmation.
The vast majority of comments on his warnings to the community were overwhelmingly supportive, with other residents chiming in with their experiences of being harassed online by the same individuals.
One commented: "I am really sorry this is happening to you and your family. I haven’t seen anything but anyone that knows you knows you are a good soul."
But responding to questions about whether the situation from January had just continued, Sheets added: "It’s never stopped, he has cloned me and is making very bad post to all the biz owners acting like me.”
Lake Havasu City Police Department has been approached for comment.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.