Putting this at the top for idiots saying “BuT I sEe No CoNtRaCt?” It’s a matter of public record, trials have open doors. But here’s a repo of what’s currently been made available:
Share this everywhere, please help the Mansell family in any way you can. This should be a slam dunk case. I’ll try and keep this updated as videos drop.
Ben’s Videos:
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Ben goes over Bricks and Minifigs (BAM) Corporate PR statement
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Ben responds to leaked BAM corporate email to franchise owners
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Part 2 has been released on YouTube. Police targeting Ben, redacting audio illegally, etc
Supporting videos/articles from/of those involved:
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Former BAM franchise owners Benjamin and Chrystal Gorman, speak out with evidence
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American Fork Police Chief, imo, outright lying based on the video evidence we’ve seen so far.
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Leaked, previously redacted bodycam footage of sniveling bitch Joshua Johnson.
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Cucks at GoFundMe took down Reckless Ben’s fundraiser to help the Mansell family.
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American Fork council meeting that includes individuals calling out the police department misconduct
The Civil Rights Lawyer Videos:
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Ben talks over the case with The Civil Rights Lawyer on YouTube Part 1
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Part 2 with The Civil Rights Lawyer, interview with Tyler Shaw
Legal Eagle Videos:
Leonard French’s Videos:
Clearly Established Videos:
MoistCr1tikal/penguinz0 Videos:
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Charlie responding to Patreon CEO giving the middle finger to BAM
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Charlie going over the American gag order to protect corporate criminals
Coffeezilla/Voidzilla Videos:
SomeOrdinaryGamers Videos:
MARKIE videos:
Support the creators, Reckless Ben, for the amazing and exhausting work going into all of this, funds go to legal fees and helping the Mansell family who were victims of theft by BAM corporate, and the American Fork, UT police coverup.
https://westealfromoldpeople.com/
Key people:
Those who need your support:
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Bryan Mansell: The collector whose family allegedly consigned the Star Wars LEGO collection to the Salem-Keizer Bricks & Minifigs store. His family is the one allegedly left without the full collection or proper payment.
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Reckless Ben / Ben Schneider: The YouTube creator who entered the story after the Mansell family reached out. His tactics were provocative and legally risky in places, but they turned the dispute into a national controversy. His exposé so far should be treated as a template, in my opinion, for exposing these greedy, inhuman corporations. Thanks Reagan.
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Mansell’s Father: The 83-year-old collector who helped build the collection over many years. Due to recent developments in his health, he cannot be unduly stressed as it could be dangerous. His son, with his blessing, was attempting to sell his collection to aid in medical costs (fuck the American healthcare scam, Universal Healthcare let’s go). However, because of these developments, Bryan can’t even inform his father for worry of aggravating his condition.
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Chrystal Law-Gorman And Benjamin Gorman: The original Salem-Keizer Bricks & Minifigs franchise operators. They reportedly signed the consignment agreement, handled the collection for months and paid Mansell his share before the store takeover dispute. They have recently put forth evidence that the consignment was allowed according to the franchise agreement they signed as well as they have security camera recordings of BAM corporate agreeing to take on the consignment which is in clear contradictiom to BAM’s claims.
Name and Shame
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BAM Franchising: The corporate parent/franchisor behind Bricks & Minifigs. BAM’s role matters because the company allegedly stepped into the store transition and later argued that the consignment was unauthorized. The company has claimed that everything Ben has shown are lies without putting forth any evidence of their own.
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Ammon McNeff: CEO of BAM Franchising and the main corporate face of the controversy. His response is central to the leadership criticism because he appears to have focused on distancing corporate from responsibility instead of making Mansell whole. He has outright lied on camera in several instances according to the information presented by Ben.
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Matt McNeff: COO of BAM Franchising and Ammon McNeff’s brother. He is part of the corporate leadership structure behind the Bricks & Minifigs franchise system.
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Ki McAllister: Executive Project Manager at BAM Franchising. Security camera footage and recorded phonecalls show that, on behalf of BAM, he accepted the consignment and threatened to use legal pressure to silence the previous owners.
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Brandon Best: One of the post-transition operators tied to Baker Bricks. He is important because the dispute centers on what happened to the store inventory after the takeover and who controlled the remaining consigned sets. He was present in the security camera footage when the former owners mentioned the consignment as he hurried them out of the location. He held the phone in the security footage while Ki McAllister agreed to take on the consignment as part of the ownership transfer.
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Joshua Johnson: The other post-transition operator tied to Baker Bricks and American Fork, Utah. He became a major focus after Reckless Ben’s attempts to contact and serve him led to repeated American Fork police involvement. Allegedly, given the evidence Ben presents, convinced the police to arrest Ben for stealing the legos, in which the police execute a search and raid on the residence and arrest all of Ben’s friends and himself while present despite finding no evidence of theft.
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Baker Bricks LLC: The entity tied to Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson after the store transition. Its role matters because it appears connected to the new operation that took over the store after BAM’s intervention.
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American Fork Police: The Utah police department that became part of the story after repeated interventions involving Ben’s attempts to contact, serve and publicly pressure Joshua Johnson. Their conduct is now one of the most troubling parts of the controversy because it appears biased and retaliatory.
consider joining Ben’s patreon (if you are able). he is an incredible guerrilla activist and has been doing stuff like this for years. he’s a real one
to clarify, i am not affiliatedin any way, just a big fan of him and his activism work, and happy to see him finally gaining some recognition. out of all the shit he has done, i find it hilarious that a lego scandal is what pushed him into the public eye.
You gotta love the AFPD leaking their own unredacted bodycams footage at the worst possible time. If it went that way in a movie, I’d consider it a bit far fetched of a plot development. That was just pure chefs kiss
From a distance and with no solid reasoning to back it up, if a coincidence seems that convenient, maybe there’s a cause?
Maybe a pissed viewer managed the leak?
A man can dream…
Man I have been following this crazy shit even though I don’t even care about Legos. Crazy how this one YouTuber just wanted to make some content and managed to blow this whole thing wide open! It just keeps getting worse for them!
Like at what point does the corporation just decide they are going to give the Legos back or pay for them because it’s the right thing to do? Even without Ben getting involved with his crazy antics, corporate should have looked at the situation and told the new owner to pay for the inventory he inherited to the customer or give them back because it’s bad PR if they don’t. You’re building a brand on trust. How do you gain trust? By paying people what you say you’ll pay them no matter what happens on your side! I guarantee there are some huge collectors out there paying close attention to this situation that will never trust BAM now.
$200k on consignment is absolutely crazy to begin with though! I’d never trust my families entire life saving to a few page contract with obvious loopholes
He’s a pretty good example of chaotic good in this case
Lego will be destroyed before they take the blame
That moment when you realize you used the word crazy way too much in your rant… Crazy
The main takeaway I got from watching the first two videos is to never ever fuck with this kid.
This dude is relentless.
Too stupid to be intimidated, I’d say.
Its only admirable because the people he is in opposition of are even more shady and incompetent. A good lesson in choosing the right enemy.
he is actually really intelligent IMO. if this is your introduction to him, consider watching some of his other projects. dude infiltrated the 12 Tribes cult and legally obtained ownership of the Yellow Deli to end the exploitation of the employees and had to go into hiding when they realized he was filming them inside their compound. he did the same thing with McKamey Manor to end the torture going on there, and more. his methods are unorthodox but they work.
Bricks and Minifigs have done so much damage to their image that just working with the family would have avoided all of this. Their stance was horrible and all the police interactions just made it way worse. I dont think they will ever recover. I wish the best to Reckless Ben for fighting the good fight!
I would argue this case belongs in actuallyinfuriating, not mildlyinfuriating
I think that’s a great argument.
It needs to escalate until it lands with someone who isn’t from LDS.
I’m kinda worried that this whole state’s legal system is LDS all the way to the top.
It IS the stink of the cult is on everything in Utah.
Every single facet of everything there is affected by their fairy tale belief system.
I lived on the border of Utah and I can confirm it was extremely bad. One of the restaurants wanted to serve wine and they went before the city council to plead their case and the amount of backlash they got was insane.
Every official, policeman, lawyer, judge, etc are all Mormons. When CPS shows up to investigate you can see their Mormon underwear peeking through their clothes. If you guessed that non-Mormons were way more likely to get their kids removed you would be right.
It is very corrupt and very unwelcoming to non-members. For instance, my children were not allowed to play with the Mormon children.
I was a little shocked I hadn’t seen much of that coverage here on the fediverse yet.
You’re welcome, I was updating my original post from a while back as videos came out. Reuploaded it given the latest update (the main link of the post) which is just outright censorship.
it goes deep, with the mormon church is involved indirectly.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but I somehow still am. The US is such a deeply corrupt, unsalvageable shit hole of a country.
As a someone not from USA, if it helps, there is plenty of corruption in other places in the world unfortunately. Even the UK and the EU are not free of it.
At the same time America has a huge problem with blatant corruption at the very top of the federal administration right now which is very concerning. Arguably the most corrupt USA president ever.
Arguably the most corrupt USA president ever.
It’s not even an argument at this point, it’s not even close.
One could probably make the argument that this administration is more corrupt than all previous admins combined.
We’re talking next level shit to the degree that this nation has never seen in 250 years
In France we had an ex-president in prison not long ago. Because he was condemned for corruption and receiving money from Muammar Gaddafi. So yeah corruption will always be there to some extent.
The very concerning thing for the US is that this corruption at the top is getting widespread and there will be a point where it will be completely self sustaining. And the American justice system seems to be completely unable to push back on it. Even worse its starting to get corrupted itself with the “anti-weaponization fund” attempt.
Yeah, I think lots of people are starting to wake up and see that whenever money can buy influence, it leads to corrupt governments. I believe Aristotle defined them, so maybe there was a bit of lag in that upload 🙃 lol
But really, I think people are starting to realize that capitalism isn’t the dream they were promised it would be. And, I mean, a system that can only exist through exploitation, that will always seek to deregulate itself, and that creates the conditions for those that rise to the top to be the most narcissistic, unempathetic, and most willing to exploit…I mean 🤷♂️
It’s so cyclical that you’d hope we’d learn eventually but idk.
Wew, good thing it’s only America with those problems.
Did they say that?
Am waiting for Coffeezilla video on that. This has been a cluster fuck that is quite hard to follow without spending lot of time on it. Still haven’t get into legaleagle take on it because there’s more to it? Idk.
It’s way easier to ignore all the static and just watch the Reckless Ben videos yourself. Even if you don’t know the law as well as like Legal Beagle or somebody you can see there’s a lot of things morally wrong happening regardless of the law. Then there’s the police corruption. Also obvious abuse of the court system.
Except…based on coffeezilla investigation, reckless ben goes out there with a false premise of 200k dollar stolen legos, where the actual value of the stolen stuff is about 15 to 25k. Reckless ben is the static himself, and i also don’t care about the static surrounding the actual issue.
what are his receipts? because Ben has them. literally all of them. did you even watch all his videos? or are you basing your opinion on third party information
legaleagle’s take was that mostly there seem to be some aspects that while not crystal clear, don’t look great. It was a more balanced take that some things should be tried to find out for sure. That said, their latest vid re: RecBen trying to serve court papers and the cops looking sketchy af definitely leans toward cop collusion
The Civil Rights Lawyer did a pair of videos on this as well.
I’ll add coffee to this big ole list when they come out. Just added the 2nd legal eagle video 👍
Says he’s working on one!
Actually from his yt post it’s out for patreon, and might be here this week.
One just dropped on the coffeezilla main channel. Added.
Just added the 2nd legal eagle video 👍
Ohh lol the first one is 50min long and i waiting for some time to play it as podcast, and then the second one dropped and it’s also 50min long
I’d say this whole case is way more than just mildly infuriating.
Some of Reckless Ben’s actions in Utah were very… wreckless, and have complicated the legal case for the Mansell family. He’s done some good stuff here no doubt. But he should have toned down the confrontations with the B&M executives and their families, for example.
Agreed but on the other hand, his recklessness has brought a lot of awareness to the whole thing including a go fund me that is about to hit $500k. As long as Ben holds up his end of the bargain and pays the family, his antics will 100% be worth it for the family.
Ben’s heart is in the right place. But he is an idiot.
I know he doesn’t bill himself as a journalist, but I was taught to not make someone else’s story about yourself. Once he inserted himself into the mix and started doing antics he crossed a line, imo, and his legal troubles got magnified and he arguably made the legal issues for the Mansell’s worse.
The video where AFPD is fucking with him and he gets arrested and then talks to the detective instead of lawyering up immediately had me shouting at the screen. Don’t talk to the cops, people. Never talk to the cops, jfc.
I know lawyers are unpopular and expensive, but this is actually a case that needed them.
While potentially true, that doesn’t excuse any of the actions taken by the franchise owners, corporate, and especially the american fork police.
Ben might’ve done some antagonistic things, but it’s overall good to bring light to all of this. So, so, SO many other people and families are taken advantage by corporate America like this.
Biggest things are Ben and his friends are young and I think they trusted the police way too much. Did they do some things that could be considered antagonistic? Absolutely. And the whole claiming to flee to Mexico…ugghhh lol.
They have not caused physical or mental harm to anyone as far as we’re aware.
They may have instigated financial loss. However, that can also be easily argued that the initial action here was the company deciding not to make a family whole in any way.
And that, herein, is what we all see. Property and capital receiving preferential treatment over human life.
Oh definitely. What B&M and some of the cops and lawyers have done is really bad.
It is entirely possible and often is the case that all parties involved can be in the wrong, legally if not also morally. Ben really fucked up in a few places and ended up helping BAM out because of that. Had he been a little more cautious where things are currently would be a lot more straightforward with all the legal fallout aimed squarely at BAM. Instead there’s a not unlikely chance Ben could end up in serious financial and possibly even legal trouble. It’s not inconceivable that he could wind up facing some jail time and an even higher chance he could wind up with the kind of judgement against him that he’s not going to be able to crowd fund his way out of.
The only somewhat bright side is that it’s looking highly likely that Mansell will wind up getting his $100K and/or Legos back, even if literally everyone else winds up financially ruined.
Unfortunately the ones I see getting away with their crimes in this situation are as usual the dirty cops.
Well, let’s do as much as we can to pressure legislators and the courts to hold parties accountable. The only reason anything is happening is because of the transparency and public response.
It clearly demonstrates how our justice system, our laws, are set up to benefit and protect capital and property over human life and wellbeing. And I think that’s what so many of us see more clearly.
An example, even if we assume that Tyler Shaw sues the American Fork PD and wins, it won’t be the officers involved, the chief of police, the DA, nor the judges who signed flippant warrants without any proper vetting, it will be the taxpayers who make them whole. The people suffer. At most, perhaps some of the officers involved may lose their jobs, which their corruption and/or ineptitude is a danger to the public in its own right.
While Ben can’t speak about this, the public certainly still can and hold pressure to those involved to keep things moving. The main goal of all of this is the corporation wants to sweep this under the rug as quickly as possible. Very similar to the Epstein files, just on a smaller scale.
Something that stood out to me from Legal Eagle pt1 was that everyone involved - everyone - should’ve talked to a lawyer sooner than they did (if they even did). This is especially true for Reckless Ben, and what he did in Utah (covered by Legal Eagle pt2). He really, really needs to find a lawyer, and listen to their advice. I get that he’s trying to create content, but this isn’t the way.
100%
From what I could gather, it sounds like The Civil Rights Lawyer (videos above) is helping Ben, Tyler, and those involved connect with lawyers finally.
I personally think Ben is young, and it’s not like they teach this in schools and the police use this to their advantage. Quite the opposite actually, they send cops to our schools to teach kids that cops are nice, they’re on the side of justice, etc. And Ben believed that, which is why he talks to them so much. He believes the police are good people and are there to help him and I don’t think I can fault him all that much for that. A suburban white kid growing up wouldn’t likely have had any experiences that would break that propaganda.
Hopefully, after this, he’ll be more wary in the future, and immediately reach out to a lawyer (though would it get the same attention and results if he did? That’s a discussion in and of itself.) The police, and most of our laws, have always been to protect property over people. I mean, law enforcement derived itself from slave catchers 🙃
How did you manage to misspell “reckless”?
He is simply serving his own interests
He makes money from YouTube after all
And that discredits the argument for aiding someone taken advantage of by a corporation, the argument that there exists rampant police ineptitude and/or corruption how?
The existence of a GoFundMe to at least attempt to make a family whole does a lot more than the company doing nothing for years and threatening lawfare until they finally get some negative publicity.
Is Ben making money off of this? Yes. Can his actions still be morally correct? Yes.
We live under capitalism. We’ve tied our very survival to making money. How does that discredit what he’s attempting as you’re implying?
Joshua Johnson? Brandon Best? That you?
Such an insane and sad story. Hope it plays out for the family in one way or another …
Let’s not spread this any more
Ammon is that you? 🤡
Public pressure is the only thing that has helped move this case forward to where it is today.
If you hope to see any repercussions for the police officers who blatantly took sides and broke the law then public pressure is the only way. Explain yourself, because right now with this comment in isolation you sound like a boot licker…
I don’t think there is enough evidence to actually make a judgment here. Posting this online leads to the people involved getting potentially harassed by fans thinking they are helping. I’m also not terribly sympathetic to anyone who hords Lego as it is clear that the family involved is not exactly poor or without status.
With that being said, I can understand how heartbreaking it must be having your lifelong Lego collection stolen by a large company. The problem is that there are a ton of people online who are drawing opinions about this without actually having all the facts. For instance, is there an actual signed contract? I haven’t actually seen it if there is one. However, I also think this is a private manner that people on the outside should not be involved in. There are a lot of red flags here including the fact that they couldn’t find an attorney willing to take the case and that there gofundme page got taken down.
In short, I’m a bit skeptical about the whole thing
You’re making a lot of false analogies here, but I wish people would respond instead of just downvote you. First of all, afaik there is a signed contract - if that makes a difference. Secondly, I don’t think a Lego collector can be called a hoarder, that’s… Yeah no. Third, the owner is sick and was trying to sell his collection to pay for the medical expenses, they’re not as well off as you assume. But even if they are, what difference does it make? It’s still not legal to steal from them. And finally, the whole issue here is that a big company is bullying the little guy, with the help of the establishment in the form of the police. This is now more about how the police broke the law and acted like a mafia organization and less about the theft from the company.
It honestly feels like they’re a corporate plant with how they’re in a bunch of these comments.
If there was a valid contract, where are the records? Surely there are records of exactly what is owned by the family. It sounds like due to a lack of records BAM doesn’t know exactly what the family is owed (if anything) Representives from the family have visited the store multiple times but yet they can’t seem to provide clear proof of ownership. Bricks and minifigs has been reasonably cooperative as they let the family inspect the store inventory and records. However, I have yet to have seen a full list of what is owned by the family. Knowing how small companies tend to operate it is possible there was only a verbal agreement.
Assuming the family is telling the truth, it is possible that the inventory was sold without the money making it back to the family. We do know that the original store owner was in financial hot water so it is possible the money from the sales went to paying bills. It is also possible that somewhere in the chaos of it all sets were stolen. This whole thing smells of bad record keeping which unfortunately means that the family might honestly be screwed. While I do feel for the family, I don’t believe it to be the fault of BAM. From my understanding they were willing to return the sets as long as there was clear proof of ownership.
The contract question has been answered. The Gormans publicly released their franchise agreement which explicitly states “the franchisee may also offer consignment services” directly contradicting BAM CEO Ammon McNeff’s claim that consignment was unauthorized under franchise rules. The CEO lied on camera and the document proves it.
On the security footage: on the night BAM seized the store, Ki McAllister, BAM’s Director of Operations, was on speakerphone when the Gormans informed him of the outstanding consignment. He acknowledged it and stated that since the new operator was taking over the business, he would be taking over the consignment as well. That exchange was captured on the store’s security camera and has been provided to law enforcement. BAM’s subsequent claim of ignorance about the collection is directly contradicted by their own Director of Operations on recorded footage. Several reviews by attorney’s above agree that that it is reasonable to believe there was knowledge of said consignment before the takeover.
The Gormans also have audio of McAllister saying “if we go the legal route it’s going to be a very expensive battle for you” which is the corporation explicitly threatening legal attrition against people trying to recover property that was taken from them.
BAM’s “reasonable cooperation” also included attempting to take down Ben’s Patreon to cut off his legal funding, getting his GoFundMe removed, and filing a RICO lawsuit against him, the Mansell family, and associates. Patreon’s own CEO called their takedown attempt a “despicable maneuver” and refused to comply, outright telling BAM to sue Patreon.
This isn’t bad record keeping. This is a documented corporate coverup with security footage, released contracts, recorded phone calls, and a paper trail of legal intimidation tactics. The only reason any of this is moving toward resolution is because of public pressure. Which is exactly why spreading it matters.
Here’s a link to all the documents made public so far, including the Gorman’s signed franchise agreement, BAMs old and new franchise agreements, Mansell’s signed consignment agreement, and more.
You really sound like a corporate plant dude. “And anyone with a bunch of legos is obviously well off.” 1 - no? How is that even a statement? 2 - and how does that make it ok to steal from them?
Also, you keep saying it should stay private and in the courts…you do know that trials are a matter of public record…right? Like, open doors unless otherwise stated. The public actually has a right to know what goes on in a trial and the outcomes.
Don’t know if you guys saw but Cofeezilla came out with his video yesterday. There’s a little bit more nuance regarding the actual numbers than what one would think just watching the reckless Ben series.
Not that it changes anything, still a thieving business run by rats and a completely corrupt police department - which coffee does not go into for some reason - very disappointed with that tbh since to me that’s the biggest thing in this story…
Fuck that. Name and shame. They can’t get away with this
For what possible reason? The only reason any modicum of justice may be served is because of public pressure.
Ammon McNeff is that you?
The people involved are doing a awful lot of of attention grabbing.
It is completely inappropriate to harass people. If they have a issue it needs to be settled in court.
You’re a petty, sad individual my friend. And you do not meet this current moment. Your comment implies that it is ok for corporations to take advantage of individuals and that police collusion should remain in the dark and is not a matter of public concern.
What a pathetic capitalist authoritarian bootlicker.
You also believe that protests should remain quiet and out of sight too don’t you?
Disgusting.
