If you’ve never seen the show Storage Wars, the premise is pretty simple: buyers head to an auction to buy abandoned storage units, and they get to keep or sell the unit’s content. Sometimes the storage unit is full of treasures like antiques, rare pieces of furniture, or even revealed pieces of evidence for a past crime. Other times the storage units are filled with trash.

Westen Champlin, a YouTuber (@WestenChamplin) from Kansas, ended up extremely lucky when he bought a storage unit and found a vintage lowrider bouncer car in nearly perfect condition.

Unlike Storage Wars, the storage unit auctions weren’t in person for Champlin – instead, they showed pictures of the contents so people could bid on ones they thought would have content worth buying. Champlin continued scrolling until he saw a picture of the taillight of a two-door 1979 Buick Regal.

“Oh man, this storage unit has a car,” he told the camera. “I think it looks like a lowrider. It’s got the hydro cables hanging out of the trunk and everything.”

Champlin makes the 1,000-mile journey to the storage unit

The auction website said the storage unit was in Buffalo, New York, and was priced at $3,500.

“I mean, I would spend $5,000 on that,” said Champlin. “So, I’m going to make a very bad financial decision. I’m going to buy a car with no keys, in a storage unit that’s over 1,000 miles away. But look at how cool it is.”

However, another interested bidder drove the price up to $6,040, often waiting until the last available second to drive the price up. But Champlin ended up the owner of the vehicle in the storage unit.

When he arrived in New York after an overnight flight, the realization of the unknown started to creep up on him.

“We don’t know if this thing even has an engine in it,” he said. “All we know is that there’s a corner of a car in there.”

Luckily, the car looked to be in good shape

Champlin and his friends quickly got to work going through the boxes, toolboxes, and bins surrounding the car.

“I just want to make sure we go through and value everything before we actually start messing with the car,” he said.

To his delight, the engine was not only intact but upgraded, and the last time the vehicle was registered in the state of New York was 2024. When he called a friend to estimate the worth of the car, he was told around $20,000 to $30,000.

Without keys, Champlin had to try starting the car with a screwdriver. A little boost from jumper cables helped the Buick roar to life.

“Dude, this car runs better than any car you own,” joked a friend.