There Was Gold in That Concord Storage Unit — $500K Worth With a Shady Story to Boot

A $500,000 stash of gold that turned up in a Concord storage unit reportedly has quite the pirate story attached to it.

Like an episode of TV's Storage Wars, where competitors bid blind on unclaimed storage units full of potential treasures, the approximately 200-year-old Spanish doubloons were found in a plastic container by a San Jose man who paid $1,100 for the unit during an auction, according to storageauctioncentral.com.

A man identified only as Curtis P. claims the booty belonged to Daniel David Rigmaiden, who is awaiting trial in the U.S. District Court of Arizona on federal charges of fraud and identity theft.

Curtis, who met Rigmaiden in jail, told Storage Auction Central that Rigmaiden, who is accused of being part of a ring that stole more than $4 million from the U.S. government through fraudulent tax returns, had asked him to take care of his apartment and storage units. Curtis, who found out about the big find from the website, said he couldn't make payments to the storage facility because Rigmaiden did not tell him what alias to use.

American Auctioneers and multiple local storage facilities have declined to comment. 

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There’s a new twist in the story of the $500,000 in gold discovered by a bidder at a California storage auction two weeks ago. 

StorageAuctionCentral.com reports that they were contacted by a man who claims to know the original owner of the storage unit.

On November 8, 2011, Dan and Laura Dotson, of television show “Storage Wars” fame, reported that a bidder at one of their auctions had discovered $500,000 in gold coins after purchasing the contents of a storage unit for $1,100.

The coins were described as Spanish doubloons and reported to be at least 200 years old. After reading about the find on StorageAuctionCentral.com, a man named Curtis P. contacted the news outlet to detail what he knew of the coins’ history.

Curtis identified the owner of the gold as Daniel David Rigmaiden, a man who is currently awaiting trial in the United States District Court of Arizona (No. CR-08-814-PHX-DGC) on federal charges of fraud and identity theft.

Rigmaiden, a self-described “hacker,” is accused of running a complex identity theft ring that stole more than $4 million from the U.S. government through the filing of fraudulent tax returns.

Curtis relayed that he had met Rigmaiden in jail while being held for unrelated charges and that Rigmaiden asked him to take care of his apartment and storage units. Curtis said he was unable to make payment on the storage units because Rigmaiden had leased them under an alias that had not been disclosed to him.

Curtis described Rigmaiden as a troubled genius whose apartment was devoid of nearly all modern amenities. “The only furniture he had were two tables, a folding chair, and a cot,” said Curtis. Curtis also said that Rigmaiden didn’t spend lavishly and would convert his stolen funds into gold and silver that he would then store away from his home. “He didn’t even have a car,” said Curtis.

Rigmaiden’s case reads like a modern day cloak and dagger novel, complete with undercover FBI and Secret Service operatives and suppression by the federal government of information about a secretive technology known as “Stingray” that is used to track cellular phone locations.

Curtis said Rigmaiden described the storage unit as containing $680,000 in gold, silver, and platinum. A wired.com article on Rigmaiden’s case stated that more than $116,000 cash and $210,000 in gold and silver coins were found when searching Rigmaiden’s home and another storage unit he rented. More details about Curtis’ claims and Rigmaiden’s case can be found on StorageAuctionCentral.com.