LOS ANGELES — Allen Haff has found himself in a precarious position. Armed with a pocket knife and a rechargeable flashlight resembling a space-age ray gun, the lanky 41-year-old is dangerously perched inside a storage unit on the side of a mattress that is teetering against a rickety tower of boxes.Each time Haff shifts his weight while slashing open the sealed boxes, the dingy mattress bends as if it will suddenly give way and toss Haff down on top of the mounds of junk beneath him. He doesn’t care. At this moment, he doesn’t want to be anywhere else. Haff makes money by uncovering goodies inside storage units auctioned off because of unpaid rent.
The addictive exploits of Haff and his burly 32-year-old partner Clinton “Ton” Jones are the focus of Spike’s “Auction Hunters,” the latest entry in the popular trash-or-treasure reality TV subgenre. Much like such predecessors as PBS’ “Antiques Roadshow” and History Channel’s “American Pickers,” “Auction Hunters” fixates on finding gems among garbage.
