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What’s The Most Hated Man on Storage Wars’ Dave Hester doing now?

Published

6 months ago

October 31, 2023

Dave Hester was one of the controversial people in the hit American reality television series “Storage Wars.” The original cast member was shown to have such a boorish and ill-bred attitude in the show, that many viewers grew to dislike him immensely. His personality could be likened to those fictionalized villain characters in daytime drama series, who the viewers loved to hate, but still looked for him in every episode. He became more interesting to fans when he sued the TV show with controversial claims, then retured to be part of the show for several seasons, as if the lawsuit never happened. Fans were curious as to what became of the most hated man in the show after he was conspicuously absent for the past two seasons.

Contents

1 All about “Storage Wars”
2 Get to know Dave Hester, a.k.a. “The Mogul”
3 Dave Hester’s many seasons with “Storage Wars”
4 Dave went into a legal battle with the producers of the show
- 4.1 His reasons for suing the people behind “Storage Wars”
- 4.2 Settled the legal dispute in 2014
5 Dave Hester was back in the show after the case was settled
6 What is Dave Hester doing these days?

All about “Storage Wars”

Prior to 2010, no one thought that a business as mundane as self-storage containers would generate so much interest in the viewing public in the US and elsewhere.

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The premise of the show

A huge facility of over two billion square feet of space in the US that could easily house every man, woman, and child seven times over, was the main focal point of the hit series called “Storage Wars.” Later on, the show featured smaller storage facilities as there wasn’t any town or city in the US that didn’t have at least one. The contents of most storage units are auctioned off when the renter hasn’t paid the bill for three months. Several people would scramble to bid for any abandoned storage units, as more often than not, they contained valuable objects that they could resell, sometimes at a considerable profit. It’is a thriving business, not only for the auctioneers but also for the buyers, also known as auction hunters or storage warriors.

14 seasons and counting

“Storage Wars” made its TV debut on 1 December 2010, and became one of the most-watched shows on the A&E cable channel. From its inception up to January 2019, it had 12 successful seasons, but for some reason it stopped airing new episodes, and everyone thought that it was canceled. However, in 2021, to the fans’ delight, the show came back for its 13^th season, and continued to generate huge interest from viewers. It aired its 14^th season from November 2021 to April 2022, and devoted fans expected it to be back on the small screen soon this 2023. The reality TV show also created about 10 spin-off series, all produced by the same network.

Storage auction rules – Don’t poke, don’t scratch, don’t kick, just look.

Abandoned storage unit buyers would gamble their money because most of them believed that behind the doors of those storage lockers, there was a huge possibility that they held some of the world’s best-kept treasures. These so-called storage wars could get ugly, and to ensure that each auction would go smoothly, all of them followed the basic storage auction rules. For instance, it was a cash-only sale, and all sales were final. After opening a door, buyers only had five minutes to look at what’s inside, but no one was allowed to actually step into the unit, nor open any boxes. After that five-minute inspection, the bidding war would start, and the unit would be sold to the highest cash bidder. The winner of the auction would then lock down the unit, and they would all move on to the next abandoned locker to be sold.

Get to know Dave Hester, a.k.a. “The Mogul”

All the six original storage unit buyers in “Storage Wars” were usually given aliases, and Dave Hester was known as “The Mogul.”

His childhood

Dave Hester was born on 23 July 1964, and while he was a native of Oceanside, California, his parents of Irish and German descent mostly raised him in Pendleton Marine Corps Base, as his father served in the military. He was already exposed to the auction industry at an early age, as his father became a prominent auctioneer in California. The young Dave would accompany his father to his auction events, and knew early on that he would pursue a career in the same trade.

From a furniture shop to a thrift store owner

After matriculating from high school, Dave worked for his father, and by 1992 he already had his license as an auctioneer. He also pursued other interests, such as working for a furniture company, and eventually opening his own shop. A driving under the influence (DUI) conviction sometime in 2005 changed the course of his life, as he spent many hours at a local Goodwill Store as part of his community service sentence. The experience highly inspired Dave to expand his business interests – he had a light bulb moment, and so he transformed his furniture shop into a store called Rags to Riches Secondhand Store, and later established a Newport Consignment Gallery. Little did he know that this decision would create a path for him to become a reality TV star.

His resale business thrived

Buying abandoned storage units and selling the items inside them became a huge source of income for Dave; through years of hard work, his business flourished. One of the highlights of his business dealings was when he won an auction bidding on a unit that he felt would bring him a valuable treasure. His instinct was quite remarkable, because he found an art collection inside it, which turned out to be quite profitable because of a painting called The Golden Pool. He paid a measly $750 for the storage unit, and made a big profit as he sold its contents for close to $160,000, which made him one of the most recognized faces in the local abandoned storage auction industry, and was one of the reasons why he was offered a spot in the reality TV series.

Dave Hester’s many seasons with “Storage Wars”

Out of all the eight original cast members of “Storage Wars,” Dave Hester’s journey has been the most controversial. He stayed with the reality TV series for 11 seasons, which earned him the ire of some members of the production crew, cast, and fans, because of his annoying and detestable attitude. His audacity stemmed from being in the business for more than 20 years prior to his appearance in the show, and that he had the largest operation compared to other regular buyers.

His life as an auction buyer in the show

From the get-go, viewers already had an inkling of Dave’s character. He bragged that once he entered an auction, the bidding price automatically went up, and that he was never intimidated by the other buyers on the scene. He said that once they all got inside the gate, there was no such thing as friendships, or any need for professional courtesy between them. Dave usually had about $10,000 in his pocket and sometimes more, whenever he went to an auction, as he preferred to be cash-ready for the units that he wanted to buy. With his years of experience, he knew what signs to look for in guessing the value of the contents of an abandoned storage unit

After the storage bidding war, most of the buyers who had acquired units would take home their haul for the day. Dave would unload his haul back in his consignment store in Newport Beach, California so that his crew could process them. It was where they could distinguish what was valuable, and what was deemed to be trash. He and his assistant would look at each object and exchange opinions if they could make money out of it; however, he said that since he was the boss, his decision was final. While his years of experience helped a lot in his business dealings, it didn’t guarantee that every single unit that he bought would make him rich. Sometimes he also ended up with a bust.

Why did he earn the title of the most hated man in “Storage Wars”?

According to Dave Hester’s former co-workers in the show, everyone found him greedy, arrogant, annoying, abrasive, and ungrateful. While it had been true for most businesses that they needed to adopt an attitude of ‘It’s every man for himself, and the best one wins,’ he took it several notches higher. Since the buyers often saw each other in auctions, they somehow developed a camaraderie. They might not be close friends, as they always try to outbid each other for desirable units in the facility, but still displayed professional courtesy and ample respect toward one another. However, Dave was the exception, because he didn’t care what others thought of him, and couldn’t care less if they all burned in hell.

Dave knew that he was the big fish in a pond with small players. It was understandable that he would take every single unit that he could, because he had 15 employees whose livelihood depended on his hauls, but he was quite nasty in dealing with everybody. He was once described as, ‘A stout, petty man who dresses in all black and walks with a sort of wounded pride of the winner of a chicken-wing-eating contest.’ For some, it might be a scathing description, but Dave had already uttered harsher statements to all those who bothered to listen to him. Many fans called him all the vile adjectives in the dictionary, and some weren’t afraid to say them to his face when they saw him filming for the show. His negativity was the one thing that viewers couldn’t forget about him. Initially, everyone thought that he was just acting out a character to make the “Storage Wars” a little bit more interesting; however, after a while, they all realized that he wasn’t acting. He was a real 100% spoiled and entitled person who nobody wanted to engage with, since he behaved as if he was above everyone else.

Fired from the TV show after the third season

Dave Hester didn’t make an appearance in the fourth season of “Storage Wars”; back then, most viewers thought that his despicable personality must have been the reason for his exit from the show. No one had any idea that the reality TV star had complained, and made allegations that the producers created fake scenarios to go with a certain narrative that they wanted to follow throughout the series. He claimed, ‘The truth is that (producers) regularly salt or plant the storage lockers that are the subject of the auctions portrayed on the series.’ It meant that the valuable or rare objects inside the abandoned storage units that were auctioned off in the show were pre-arranged by the production crew. He even said that those small players in the auction were funded by the producers, to ensure that they could participate in the bidding process. The reality TV star said that he wasn’t comfortable participating in the whole rigging thing.

Dave went into a legal battle with the producers of the show

After he was fired, The Mogul shocked “Storage Wars” fans as in 2012 he sued the production company, “Original Productions,” and the A&E cable network, questioning the show’s authenticity, and in 2013, added wrongful termination to his lawsuit.

Look who showed up on my side of town today! Love or hate him… #storageWars not the same without @davethemogul. JS pic.twitter.com/o3jwuhKTBP

— Nabila Haniss (@NabilaHaniss) March 22, 2014

His reasons for suing the people behind “Storage Wars”

Dave claimed that the unethical behavior of rigging the show was a violation of the Communications Act of 1934, which forbids ‘influencing, prearranging or predetermining outcome of contests of knowledge, skill or chance.’ The salting of the storage units, he said, undermined his skills, and made him less proficient as compared to the other buyers, which caused his business to lose clients. The defendants, on the other hand, raised the anti-SLAPP defense as their answer to his claim. The judge dismissed Dave’s unfair business practices claim, and ordered him to pay a little over $120,000 for the legal expenses that the defendants incurred. Regarding his wrongful termination claim, the judge gave him another chance to pursue it, as he had grounds to continue with that claim provided that he could be more specific about it. Apparently, he said that he was fired after he voiced his concerns to the management.

Settled the legal dispute in 2014

When Dave’s legal team focused on the wrongful termination claim, and backed down from his original claim about the rigging practices in the show, the Los Angeles District Judge ruled in his favor, as the case boiled down to just an employment dispute. The case lasted for two years with both parties winning and losing in some of their claims, but managed to end the controversial lawsuit by reaching an agreement.

Dave Hester was back in the show after the case was settled

To the dismay of the other cast members, Dave returned to “Storage Wars” during the fifth season, after his relationship with the network improved, and this shocked viewers. The success of the show might have faltered slightly due to the controversy, but when the legal dispute was settled and everyone moved on, it continued to attract millions of viewers. The reappearance of Dave in the show seemed to make “Storage Wars” even more interesting, and helped boost the ratings. The resident villain was back, continuing to create havoc during the bidding wars until the 12^th season. Due to the pandemic, the A&E network didn’t air any new episodes until 2021.

During the 13^th season, Dave wasn’t in his usual acerbic form, and he didn’t appear much in the newer episodes. It was reported that he had a hemorrhagic stroke, a life-threatening medical condition that occurs when a blood vessel in the brain ruptures and bleeds, due to an unhealthy lifestyle and working habits. Over the years, he developed high blood pressure and sleep apnea, which caused him stop breathing while he was asleep.

Some fans believed that “Storage Wars” was cursed, as Dave wasn’t the only one in the show who suffered unfortunate life-changing experiences. One of the resident auctioneers, Dan Dotson, had a double aneurysm scare in 2014. Husband and wife Jarrod Schulz and Brandi Passante broke up during the pandemic break; the couple tried to keep it a secret, but eventually told everyone that they’d called it quits. Talks about the show being cursed reportedly started during the lawsuit, as one of the earliest victims was Mark Balelo, an auction house owner who was featured in the show. He was later found to have committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in February 2013.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqJBrAlvdR3/

What is Dave Hester doing these days?

The feisty storage unit buyer took advantage of his popularity, and was busy in his meet and greet events if he wasn’t attending to his own auctioneering business. He could still be heard uttering his popular catchphrase, ‘Yuuup!,’ during auctions, and selling merchandise related to it; he settled a lawsuit against rapper Trey Songz about its commercial use. Initially, Trey claimed that it was his signature brand and that he used it first, so he filed a cease and desist order against Dave. However, Dave had attempted to register it as his trademark three times, which the rapper never did. They eventually settled it out of court, but signed a non-disclosure agreement so no one knew what was behind the settlement.

Aside from making sure that his new business flourishes, his wife, Donna, and son Dave Jr. are also helping him to focus more on his health, as they don’t want another medical emergency happening to Dave.

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Who is Paul from FabRats? Meet who stands behind

Published

2 hours ago

April 25, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

One of the greatest things about the internet is being able to connect with people who have similar interests and passions, regardless of how niche these might be. YouTube is one of the platforms which have made it possible for channels such as Fab Rats could find their right audience, also putting their stars under the internet’s stardom.

While everyone in the Fab Rats team makes what happens on screen possible, there’s no discussion about Paul being the show’s lead man. His hands-on and hard-working attitude make him the right one to convey Fab Rats’ mission, by turning every concept into real fabrication projects.

So who is Paul, and what is the story behind his channel? Stay here to know all about him and everything he does to make FabRats possible.

Contents

1 Who Is Paul?
2 His Beginnings
3 How Did He Start The Channel?
4 What Did Paul Do For A Living?
5 His Family, Friends & The Channel

Who Is Paul?

Ever since Fab Rats started sharing videos on YouTube in 2019, the channel has become wildly popular for people who want some entertaining but also educational insights into car building, restorations, and a fair share of adrenaline-inducing burnouts in the American style.

In front of the cameras, you can find Paul Cox, though he mostly introduces himself by his name alone. Based in Glendale, Utah, Paul turned his house’s garage into his workshop, and the rest of his property’s free space is used for automotive storage. Working at home also means that Paul is more than just a guy on his YouTube channel, as his family and friends are deeply involved with much of the work done at the garage, turning Fab Rats into more than just a regular channel.

Image source

That being said, Paul is one YouTuber of a kind as well. By stepping away from the usual scripted content and too-polished looks for the camera, Paul’s videos have fully conveyed simple and homely feelings which have only served him to connect further with his viewers.

His Beginnings

Given how vastly talented and knowledgeable Paul is in trades, it’s surprising to find out that he doesn’t have any type of certification or official training in the field. For starters, Paul was inspired to learn his craft by his father Sherman, who knew how to do ‘everything’, and passed down that knowledge to his son.

As Paul affirmed in a question and answer season on his channel, he progressively became knowledgeable with tool and machine usage throughout his childhood and teens, but welding was specifically a skill he learned just because he wanted to: ‘(it has) been just self-taught. I just wanted to weld so I started welding then’, he said, recalling that he was around nine years old the first time he used a welding machine.

While part of his knowledge also came from some school courses he attended, the experience he got by working at a machine shop from the time he was 15 years old clearly served him well in learning everything he knows nowadays. All in all, Paul’s story is impressive and inspiring, making it not a wonder why his audience feels so compelled to follow in his steps.

How Did He Start The Channel?

Building an audience while also creating interesting and content worth watching is no easy task, yet Fab Rats was able to achieve that in only a couple of years without even planning to.

To talk about Fab Rats’ beginnings, it’s necessary to talk about Paul’s passion for demolition derby and his long-standing friendship with Matt Wetzel, better known for his YouTube channel Matt’s Off Road Recovery.

As Paul said in an interview with Decent Garage on YouTube, he met Matt at a Washington County Fair competition many years ago, though it was a tense encounter in which Paul was placed second to Matt, and that stopped them from becoming friends right away. Later, they met at a demolition derby field again, but this time Paul crashed against Matt’s side so badly that he regrettably thought he had fatally hurt him. Luckily, that incident fortunately didn’t take Matt’s life, and the two and their families became good friends afterwards.

It was that same friendship which led Matt to hire Paul’s wife Michelle as his video editor when he started his channel Matt’s Off-Road Recovery in early 2019. After noticing how greatly talented Michelle was at making Matt’s content shine, and knowing how good Paul was at what he did, Matt advised the couple to start their own channel as well.

Though it took Paul and Michelle several months to follow Matt’s advice, they can now thank him for giving them such a great idea.

What Did Paul Do For A Living?

While Paul is nowadays known for his amazing welding, restoring, and everything-automotive related, things were quite different for him before Fab Rats became as popular as it is today.

For over two decades, Paul was a construction worker at a telephone company, a job which took him away from home for around four or five days a week, but that he kept even after starting Fab Rats and gaining thousands of followers, using as much free time he had at the time to work on his projects.

It wasn’t the most comfortable situation, but the goal of leaving his nine-to-five job to have more time to share with his family and work on his content was clear in Paul’s mind, finally becoming a reality between late 2021 and early 2022, when Paul resigned from his job: ‘For me, it wasn’t a hard decision. I’d done that other job for 20 years, I was done with it, the challenge was done’, he said in an interview with Decent Garage in 2022, also admitting that his wife Michelle was nervous about the decision.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CqTp8b0pV_A/

Despite how risky it was to leave a stable job to live the YouTube dream of creating content for a living, these days Paul can pride himself on having a job which allows him to do what he loves, and spend time at home with his family.

His Family, Friends & The Channel

Any good fan of Fab Rats knows well that Paul’s content not only focuses on his trade and projects, but shows a lot of what his everyday life and family are like. For starters, his wife Michelle is in charge of the production aspects of the show, on top of also appearing regularly in Fab Rats’ videos, either taking part in some projects, as an interviewer, or simply having fun.

Other regular family members in Paul’s videos are his four kids, brother, mother, and his father Sherman, who unfortunately passed away in late November 2022. While the family usually keeps the most private aspects of their life away from cameras, Paul didn’t shy away from paying his late father a tribute by sharing the fixing process of his old truck in his channel, though not before confessing to his audience about losing his ‘best friend’.

Besides his family, it’s not unusual to see Paul’s friends in his videos, either lending him a helping hand or learning from him. All of it makes it clear that Fab Rats is about so much more than just entertaining videos and gearhead passion, but is also about learning and spending precious time with our loved ones.

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Environmentalists prevailed in the ‘Diesel Brothers’ lawsuit

Published

15 hours ago

April 24, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

Truck customization has never been the same since “Diesel Brothers” debuted on TV in 2016. Featuring a wide variety of diesel-fueled trucks and a talented group of friends, “Diesel Brothers” did a great job at giving motorheads everything they wanted out of a show, including big powerful off-roading cars, and a lot of funny experiments and pranks.

Nevertheless, not everyone was happy about seeing what the “Diesel Brothers” did for a living, resulting in a long and enduring legal battle against them which to this day still causes a bit of confusion among his fans.

So what was the lawsuit filed against “Diesel Brothers” about? Who else was involved in it, and what consequences did the case have for the show and its stars? Stay here to know it all!

Contents

1 What was the lawsuit about?
2 What Did It Result Into?
3 Are Their Businesses Still Active?
4 What Happened To Their YouTube Channel?
5 Was The Show Canceled?

What was the lawsuit about?

Even before hitting TV screens in 2016, “Diesel Brothers” hosts, Dave Sparks and David Kiley, were already well-known on the internet for their fantastic truck customization featured on their popular YouTube channel. Nevertheless, not everyone had warmed up to them the same way, including an organization called Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment (UPHE), which sued Sparks and his co-associates for violating the Clean Air Act through their business Sparks Motors.

The issues started in 2016, when the UPHE bought a $43,000 Ford F-250 truck and tested its smoke emissions, finding that the truck emitted 36 times more pollutants than a common would, on top of removing the equipment necessary for diesel emission control. They filed a lawsuit seeking an injunction, directed at those in charge of the businesses behind “Diesel Brothers”, to stop them from selling trucks with these modified systems.

Some of the arguments stated in the lawsuit were the fact that Sparks, Kiley and associates had been encouraging others to follow in their steps through their TV shows and social media. As well, the UPHE argued that the trucks modified by the business were ‘disease-generating machines’, as the pollution of Utah’s air was considered a public health concern.

What Did It Result Into?

Following the lawsuit filed against them in 2016, the “Diesel Brothers” faced a long and hard legal battle which finally saw its end in 2021.

Some of the case’s highlights include a 2018 injunction which stopped them from modifying the diesel control systems on the cars modified by Sparks Motors. The injunction was granted regardless of David Sparks’ claims that his trucks were meant for off-road conditions, given that these regulations applied to all types of vehicles despite their intended use..

As the case went on, Sparks Motors’ defense didn’t deny that the vehicles modified by the business had altered emission systems but argued that the vehicles were sold mostly to clients out of Utah. As well, court reports show that the company offered to fix the emission control systems of the cars already sold, along with trying to prevent being hit by a big fine under the argument that their earnings weren’t as massive as thought

Nonetheless, the judge determined that Sparks and his co-associates had earned over $400,000 from their TV show “Diesel Brothers” alone, without including earnings from their business activities. In the end, all the businesses behind “Diesel Brothers” were fined over $848,000, and paid another $800,000 in court fees to UPHE.

Are Their Businesses Still Active?

Knowing all the legal issues that the stars of “Diesel Brothers” have gone through in recent years, the question of how much these affected their businesses and lives is very common.

Dave “Heavy D” Sparks and David “Diesel Dave” Kiley are the owners of several businesses which are still up and running, despite the difficulties. For starters, their main business Sparks Motors is active, as seen on their social media. Though it’s unclear how much they were affected by the big fine and legal expenses they had to pay after losing their emission control case, it’s clear that they’re still big fans of truck customization. In late 2022, the business moved to a new and seemingly larger location, the eighth one since the business opened.

On the other hand, the pair’s online business, Diesel Sellerz is active as well. Though its social media accounts haven’t been updated since 2021, the marketplace’s website is often updated with the newest models for sale. However, “Diesel Brothers” clothing brand Diesel Power Brand has seemingly moved to Sparks Motors’ website, on top of stopping their giveaways system by announcing the last one in November 2022.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmt-flLBx66/

What Happened To Their YouTube Channel?

Long before Heavy D and Diesel Dave made it to TV in their Discovery Channel show “Diesel Brothers”, the pair was already well known for their truck-centered content on social media.

Featuring pranks between friends and showcasing entire and detailed truck customization processes, the two Daves turned their YouTube channels DieselSellerz and Sparks Motors into the perfect platforms for promoting their business, and also inspiring other Diesel fans out there who either want to follow their steps of pursuing their dreams. Word got around, and sooner rather than later, both friends were featured in “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno”, inevitably taking the attention of Discovery producers.

That being said, the debut of Heavy D and Diesel Dave on TV also marked the end of an era for their YouTube channel, as DieselSellerz stopped sharing videos in March 2016. At that point, the pair focused on sharing content on the channels Sparks Motors and on their then-newly created HeavyDSparks, which to this day is close to hitting the three million subscribers mark.

These days, both Diesel lovers keep active on a variety of platforms, on which they aren’t limited to truck customization and personal vlogging only, but also to bringing help to communities and people in need.

Was The Show Canceled?

All of their hard work has lead to this moment…

Watch a new #DieselBrothers tonight at 10p ET on @Discovery. pic.twitter.com/nyTGBObN6a

— Diesel Brothers (@DieselBrosTV) December 28, 2022

It’s been a wild and long ride for “Diesel Brothers”, but all great things have to end at some point. After seven years and over 50 episodes aired, “Diesel Brothers” was announced to be airing its 8th and final season in December 2022.

This cancellation comes after the show spent several months off-air, with the last episode of the 7th season aired in 2020. Despite fans’ speculations pointing out the legal issues faced by Dave Sparks and David Kiley as the reasons for the cancellation, it’s unclear what exactly led to the end of “Diesel Brothers”.

So what’s in store for Heavy D and Diesel Dave? Both men still actively work in their businesses, while also creating content for their social media platforms, but other than that it’s unclear if they have any plans of returning to TV, or if this means the end of that chapter of their lives.

All in all, between the high price they had to pay in their lost legal battle against an environmental group, and the subsequent cancellation of “Diesel Brothers”, nevertheless, this isn’t the end for Dave Sparks and Diesel Dave, as surely great things are still awaiting them.

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Paul Teutul Sr’s Legal Battles and Financial Troubles

Published

2 days ago

April 23, 2024

Daniel Wanburg

For years, Paul Teutul Sr. graced the screens of motorcycle enthusiasts who followed his show religiously, watching him create custom bikes for fellow enthusiasts. Paul Teutul Sr. served in the Vietnam War as a member of the US Merchant Marine, and returned home from the war with a dream, which inspired him to start his first business, a fabrication shop in Orange County, New York State. That first business and his passion for bikes catapulted Paul to fame, after he earned several opportunities to build custom bikes on television, enter his creations in competitions, and earn awards for sharing his passion with the world. Unfortunately, financial troubles and a barrage of legal battles threatened Paul’s livelihood and ability to keep pursuing his passion. Here’s an update on all Paul Teutul Sr’s battles and problems.

Image source

Contents

1 “The Ride of a Lifetime”
2 “Orange County Choppers”
3 “American Chopper”
4 “Senior Vs Junior” and “The Last Ride”
5 Legal Battle: Father against Son
6 Legal Battle: Fraud
7 Bankruptcy

“The Ride of a Lifetime”

In his memoir “The Ride of a Lifetime: Doing Business the Orange County Choppers Way,” Paul Sr. credits the positive turn in his life that brought him all the success he’s enjoyed to a promise he made to his wife. When Paul returned home from the Vietnam War, he fell into a drinking problem – at 35, he spent most of his time drinking, and would often wake up in strange places with no memory of how he got there. Naturally, his body was falling apart from over two decades of excessive drinking – he would often cough up blood, and knew that he had to stop drinking or he wouldn’t live long; he made a promise to his wife to sober up., which saved his life. He attended Alcoholics Anonymous, got sober, and started his fabrication business.

“Orange County Choppers”

Paul Sr. actually started his first business, “Orange County Ironworks,” long before he became sober. All he owned at the time was a welding machine and a pick-up truck he used for transport. In the mid-1980s, when Paul sobered up and started to recover from his alcoholism, the business began to expand. He opened a larger shop in Rock Tavern, New York, shortened his business name to “Orange County Iron,” and expanded his customer base exponentially over the next 15 years,. By 1998, Paul had acquired a 10,000-square-foot steel framed facility to supplement the 7,000-square-foot shop he’d been operating out of since 1986. After this expansion, Paul left it in the capable hands of his son, Dan Teutul, and moved on to pursue his passion for motorcycles.

Paul founded “Orange County Choppers” in 1999, capitalizing on his knowledge and extensive experience as a fabricator, his long-held passion for bikes, and the expertise of the engineers and designers he brought on board to create custom bikes. His passion and expertise as well as that of his team shone in his work, earning him a spot on the hit reality television series “American Chopper.” The company has withstood several legal battles seeking to use Paul’s shares to recover some of his debts. However, a quick review of the operations of “Orange County Choppers” reveals a thriving company, that sells branded gear such as t-shirts and hoodies, organizes, and has its bikes featured in events such as the upcoming “Show at the Shed” in May.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cpicd6WukEa/

“American Chopper”

Four years after leaving his fabrication business to start “Orange County Choppers,” Paul’s decision to pursue his passion paid off, when he caught the attention of executives at Pilgrim Films & Television, and secured a spot for a show on the Discovery Channel. The first episode of “American Chopper” aired in March 2003, and over four years, Paul Teutul Sr., his son Paul Jr., and their team entertained their audience of bike enthusiasts with their antics, as they worked in their garage to build custom bikes, before their show was moved to TLC in 2007. Since its premiere, the show cultivated a niche among the Discovery Channel’s loyal audience base, gradually growing its own audience base that remained loyal, and stuck with Paul Sr. and his team when the show was moved to TLC, averaging over three million viewers per episode. Two years after its move to TLC, the show lost its spot despite the large viewership it had cultivated. Fortunately, fans and fellow bike enthusiasts didn’t wait long since TLC picked up the show again albeit with a twist in its premise since it pitted Paul Sr. against Paul Jr.

“Senior Vs Junior” and “The Last Ride”

One of the dynamics that defined “American Chopper” was constant disagreements between father and son. From the beginning, it became evident to the audience that despite sharing a passion for making custom bikes, Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. had different approaches to their work, which led to the infamous showdown of 2008; t he fight between the two had been brewing for a while.

One morning, Teutul Sr. was fed up with his son’s lateness to work, and expressed his anger over Junior’s tardiness, noting that Jr. had been making a lot of excuses lately, and adding that he wouldn’t let his son get away with it any longer. When Jr. eventually came to work, Paul Sr. confronted him for being forty-five minutes late, adding that he was tired of babysitting him. Jr. defended himself saying it didn’t matter what time he got to work, as long as all the work would get done at the end of the day. Besides, Jr. added, the business would collapse without his input. An angry Paul Sr. responded by firing his son.

Anyone who thought that Paul Jr’s termination from “Orange County Choppers” (OCC) would be the end of his infamous rivalry with his father was wrong. Paul Jr. opened a rival custom motorcycle business, capitalizing on the experience he’d gained after years of working with his father, the client base he’d cultivated, and the skills that had made him an invaluable member of OCC’s team.

Fans got to watch the rivalry between father and son play out on screen again, when TLC premiered “American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior.” Four seasons later, the show ended with father and son standing proudly next to the bike they’d collaborated on building for a client. The feuding yet incredibly talented duo showed off its complementary skills again in 2020, when Paul Sr. and Jr. collaborated on another bike in a special entitled “American Chopper: The Last Ride.”

Legal Battle: Father against Son

Paul Sr.’s rivalry with his son began on television and ended up in the courtroom. When Paul Sr. and Jr. started working together, they both had shares in “Orange County Choppers.” They had contract, including a clause that allowed Paul Sr. to buy out his son’s stock in the business, if Paul Jr. decided to leave the jointly-owned custom bike manufacturer. Paul Sr. decided to exercise his option after their infamous fight, but his son refused to part with the shares, prompting Paul Sr. to sue his son. According to court documents, Paul Sr. claimed that his son brought harm to their business by starting a competing business, and misappropriating business assets. Furthermore, Junior was unresponsive to any attempts by his father to value his shares and interests in the business, in preparation for the buyout. Paul Jr. won the lawsuit following the court’s decision that Paul Teutul Sr. couldn’t force his son to sell his shares in OCC.

Legal Battle: Fraud

Paul Sr. wound up in court again a few years later – this time on the other side of a court case. He’d been sued by another business partner, Thomas Derbyshire, for allegedly spending the capital the plaintiff had injected into OCC for personal expenses. According to Thomas, he invested $3 million into a spin-off entitled “Orange County Choppers: American Made” but Paul Sr. used the money to go on a fishing trip. Furthermore, Paul paid his son a significant amount of money from Derbyshire’s investment, and failed to consult Thomas before accepting sponsorships for the show. More people sued the veteran and bike enthusiast for similar cases of fraud, claiming that he misappropriated the millions of dollars they invested in a TV project, leading them to lose their investment.

In addition to the lawsuits launched against him for fraud, Paul Sr. has been sued for copyright infringement, filed by a photographer who claimed that he’d taken and owned the copyright to a picture of Paul Sr., which the veteran used on his reality television show and on his merchandise. Finally, Paul Sr. is in trouble with the state of New York, for failing to pay state taxes amounting to $22,364.60.

Bankruptcy

Financial woes have accompanied Paul’s legal troubles. Despite raking in millions in endorsements, sponsorships, income from his businesses, payment from TLC for his television programs, and the proceeds from the sale of branded merchandise, Paul Sr. has been buried in debt since 2018. He owed $1,070,893.44 to over 50 creditors, and was about to lose his home in Montgomery, New York. Paul responded to his financial crisis by filing for bankruptcy in 2018, hoping that the move would help him secure his assets.

Paul’s legal and financial woes stripped him of the fortune he had worked hard to acquire since he started his first fabrication business in the 70s. Fortunately, Paul isn’t afraid of starting over and rebuilding. He’s since moved to Florida, and relocated “Orange County Choppers” to the state from New York. In addition to the motorcycle business, he’s opened the “Orange County Choppers Roadhouse and Museum,” a restaurant he runs when he’s not building custom bikes, organizing competitions, and selling merchandise.

With Paul Teutul Sr., there’s never a dull moment!