Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Reality TV personality Darrell Sheets had been telling neighbours about troubling claims involving identity theft, hacking and stalking in the months leading up to his death.
Sheets, a long-time Storage Wars bidder nicknamed ‘The Gambler’, stepped away from the A&E series in 2023 after appearing across 15 seasons. He was discovered dead at his Lake Havasu City home in the early hours of Wednesday (April 22).
According to a police report, officers were sent to the property at about 2am after receiving a call about a body. Sheets, 67, was found with a gunshot wound to the head.
Police believe the injury was self-inflicted, but have also confirmed they are considering resurfaced allegations related to bullying as part of their ongoing work. They told Page Six: “We are aware of these cyberbullying accusations and that is a part of the active investigation.”
In social media messages posted earlier this year—one in January and another in March—Sheets addressed the situation publicly in a local Lake Havasu community Facebook group, describing what he said he had been experiencing.
In the January message, he wrote: “My apologies to all people in Lake Havasu, my identity has been stolen and it is not me,” before naming two people he alleged were behind a campaign of online abuse aimed at residents and local businesses.
Sheets claimed the two individuals were impersonating him, describing them as ‘very sick people’ and alleging they targeted small 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.”
He also said in that post that he had reached out to the FBI and that they had supported him in sharing a warning with the community. Sheets added that he wanted to pursue felony charges for ‘[stalking] and harassing, and assuming my identity’.
He went on to claim that ‘these people belong in jail’. However, a follow-up post in March suggested the issues had continued.
In that later message, Sheets wrote: “[Once] again people of Havasu, I have been hacked by a very evil person,” and again indicated he believed the same two individuals were responsible for posts being circulated in the area.
Addressing statements he said were being shared while pretending to be him, Sheets wrote: “These are very evil people, I’m not gay, I have made no post about any children’s arcade owner etc.”
He then described the stress he said the situation was causing him, adding: “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.”
Sheets also added: “if something happens to me it was”, followed by the two names, which we are not publishing while police inquiries continue.
Most responses to his posts were supportive, with multiple community members commenting that they had also experienced online harassment they attributed to the same people.
One commenter wrote: “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.”
When asked whether the problems described in January had continued, Sheets replied: “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.