Recently, a story with a plot more ridiculous than a local drama went viral on American social media: In order to raise the medical expenses of his 83-year-old father, a Lego player entrusted a well-known local second-hand Lego chain store to consign the out-of-print “Star Wars” Lego that had been collected by his family for more than ten years and was valued at US$200,000 (approximately NT$6.5 million). As a result, the store immediately “swallowed” the entire collection after a new owner. YouTuber Reckless Ben, who has millions of subscribers, intervened in the investigation and spent $1 to buy legal recourse. He fought all the way from the court to the chain’s corporate headquarters. He was eventually arrested for some reason and fled to Mexico. The whole thing has not ended yet.
A second-hand Lego store swallowed up a $200,000 collection, and a million-dollar YouTuber helped seek justice but was compensated
The starting point of the incident: $200,000 Star Wars Lego disappeared from the world
The protagonist of the story is Bryan Mansell of Oregon and his 83-year-old father. The father and son spent more than ten years building a “Star Wars” Lego collection containing about 780 box sets and more than 1,200 figures, with an estimated value of about $200,000. Due to his father’s deteriorating health and the need for medical expenses, Bryan entrusted the collection to the Bricks & Minifigs (BAM) franchise store in Keizer, Oregon, for consignment in 2023, and agreed that the store would sell and split the accounts on his behalf.
Everything went smoothly during the consignment period, and BAM even showed off this set on social media as “one of the largest private Star Wars LEGO collections in the United States.” However, by the end of 2024, the situation took a turn for the worse. BAM headquarters terminated the franchise contract of original franchise owner Chrystal Gorman and transferred the store to new franchisees Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson. The new store owner claimed that he had only purchased the franchise rights and had no obligation to inherit the consignment contract from his predecessor, so the entire batch of Lego “disappeared.” The attitude of BAM headquarters is even more chilling: “This is a personal dispute between the franchise stores and the head office will ignore it.”
Millions of YouTubers take action: buying the right to sue for $1
Million-subscriber investigative YouTuber Ben Schneider (known as Reckless Ben) heard about the incident and decided to get involved. In order to protect his 83-year-old father from lawsuits, Ben used legal mechanisms to buy the “legal title and debt” of the Lego from Bryan for only $1. This move made him a legal plaintiff, and he could legitimately launch a legal battle against the unscrupulous store on behalf of his old father.
Ben’s first step was to serve the court summons in accordance with the law. He sent someone to pretend to be a courier and successfully delivered the summons to the new store owner. The court eventually ruled in favor of Ben, but the store owner simply pulled down the iron door and suspended business in order to avoid debt collection. Ben came to the scene with a special “Most Stolen Lego Award” trophy, hung a giant banner outside the store door to expose the store’s dark history, and directly turned this locked store into a “check-in attraction on the Internet.”
Rush to Utah headquarters: CEO calls the police to arrest him
Now that the local store owner is playing dead and headquarters is playing ball, Ben decides to escalate the action. He discovered that BAM’s corporate headquarters was in Utah, where President and CEO John Masek was based. Ben flew directly to Utah and went to the headquarters to hold a sign and protest, demanding that the CEO come forward.
While Ben and his team were in Utah, they were stopped multiple times by local American Fork police. One time, the police stopped the car for “running a red light” and then claimed to have received a tip that heroin was hidden in Ben’s car. After searching, they found nothing. In the end, the police executed a search warrant and claimed to have received a report that Ben’s Airbnb contained the stolen $200,000 Lego. Although nothing was found after the search, Ben and his team members were still formally arrested on charges of “stalking” and “illegal protest.”
The camera footage showed that the police were rough during the arrest and Ben’s shoulder was dislocated. Shortly after posting bail, the court issued a “no bail” arrest warrant for Ben. In order to protect the film materials in his hands from being seized, Ben bought a plane ticket and fled to Mexico overnight. While drinking on the beach, he filmed and reported to the entire Internet that he had become a “fugitive.”
‘Mormon Mafia’ conspiracy theory sets off internet
Ben’s experience made the term “Mormon Mafia” go viral on X. According to Ben’s investigation, the local police in American Fork and BAM’s new franchisees, Best and Johnson, are both followers of the Mormon Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), questioning the police’s “selective enforcement” under the influence of the church’s network. After the well-known live host h3h3 (Ethan Klein) and others followed up the discussion, the hashtag quickly became a hot search trend across the United States. American Fork police later issued a statement emphasizing that the arrest was based on “stalking” and “unlawful entry” charges filed by Joshua Johnson, denying any wrongdoing.
The whole case with Reckless Ben vs Bricks and Minifigs is bizarre… not just because of the 200k consignment mess, but because it intersected with core Mormon culture in small-town Utah.
Mormons are not Christians. They have high cultural insularity and exceptionalism. Mormon… pic.twitter.com/m7DohPmEu9
— Emerald Apple (@AI_EmeraldApple) June 5, 2026
Patreon CEO’s domineering escort: “If you want to sue, just sue.”
One of the most dramatic turns of events came from the intervention of Patreon CEO Jack Conte. In order to cut off Ben’s source of funds, BAM filed a formal legal document with Patreon, requesting that Ben’s Patreon account be closed. On June 3, 2026, Conte posted a video on YouTube in response: “After a detailed review by our Trust and Safety team, we have determined that Bricks & Minifigs can go away. We will keep Ben’s page. If they are unhappy, feel free to sue us.”
GoFundMe surpasses $420,000
Ben’s GoFundMe fund-raising project for Bryan and his son “Help Bryan Recover His Stolen LEGO Collection”, originally I just hoped to raise money for my old father’s medical expenses. Unexpectedly, with the anger of netizens across the United States, the amount of funds raised soared from tens of thousands of dollars, and as of early June 2026, it had exceeded $420,000, far exceeding the original value of the $200,000 Lego lost. Another GoFundMe supporting former store owner Gorman has also raised more than $66,000.
BAM headquarters finally bowed its head: willing to return Lego and close the store permanently
Faced with overwhelming public pressure and resistance, BAM headquarters finally made concessions in early June 2026. BAM CEO Ammon McNeff issued a statement expressing his willingness to sit down with Bryan and return his collection, including all Star Wars Lego in the store, “whether it is confirmed to be yours or not.” The company also promised to reimburse any irrecoverable items and drop its lawsuit against Bryan.
BAM also announced the permanent closure of Keizer franchise stores and “mutually agreed to terminate cooperation” with controversial franchise owners Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson. However, the company also shifted the responsibility to the former store owner Gorman, accusing him of “unauthorized consignment” and “serious negligence.” Gorman presented a contractual rebuttal, proving that consignment business was expressly allowed in the franchise contract.
Asmongold also has a live broadcast to share the whole story. People in China have also translated and compiled it. If you are interested, you can check it out:
The incident has not ended yet
As of now, Ben is still stranded in Mexico and has announced that he will release the “third episode” video, which will reveal more inside stories about the alleged collusion between the CEO and the local police. Although BAM’s lawsuit against Bryan has been dropped, the lawsuit against Ben himself is still ongoing. American Fork police continue to face a bombardment of angry phone calls from netizens across the United States.
This incident sparked a national discussion because it touched on many sensitive nerves: the powerlessness of ordinary people against big companies, the loopholes and gray areas of the franchise system, the supervisory power of social media as the “fourth right”, and the stance of creator platforms under legal pressure. As one X user commented: “Lego news in 2026 is actually more exciting than most political news.”
Source: KOCPC Chinese