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.

Bricks and Minifigs (BAM) Corporate PR statement

Leaked BAM corporate email to franchise owners

Former BAM franchise owners Benjamin and Chrystal Gorman, speak out with evidence

Part 2 has been released on YouTube. Police targeting Ben, redacting audio illegally, etc

BAM CEO goes on livestream and promises to answer Ben’s questions. He, predictably, dodges, lies, and presents no evidence.

American Fork Police Chief, imo, outright lying based on the video evidence we’ve seen so far.

Ben’s response to the lying police department

Ben talks over the case with The Civil Rights Lawyer on YouTube Part 1

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:

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Daughter_of_Sekhmet@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    I’m baffled at how fundamentally broken the justice system in USA is and how easily any corporation can commit civil crimes speculating litigation will ruin most people.

    I live in a third world country and yet institutionally we’re significantly more coherent.

    Ben is an absolute legend for braving these criminal scumbags. I hope the francises fila a class action lawsuit against the corporation for nuking the brand

  • Starya67@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    It’s amazing. I’ve seen numerous posts about this and nobody has actually explained what’s going on. Linking to YouTube is not explaining what’s going on.

    • Maven (famous)@lemmy.zip
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      8 hours ago

      Im a bit late but the TLDR is that Bricks and Minifigs took over a consignment deal from one of their franchises and then went on to claim that the deal never existed, effectively stealing all of the inventory that still legally belonged to the individual.

      While looking into this situation to try and get it fixed; the police were called multiple times, multiple people got banned from ever setting foot on the property, a new company and a religion were started, a 3 hour drug search on a car that had nothing in it, a bunch of small claims lawsuits, a gofundme turned arrest, some swatting, a lot of police corruption happened (obviously), and quite a few members of the Mormon church got involved.

      Honestly I’m leaving out a ton here but thats the big things. Its a genuinely great video and watching it is well worth it if you want to hate the cops a bit more.

  • frazw@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    It is insane that simply by being a big company you automatically get the benefit of the doubt from the police and that it becomes a matter for the courts while everyone is free.

    Stealing $200,000 as an individual would get you in serious shit, locked up before trial, and ruin the rest off your life financially, but doing it as a company at worst gets you bad publicity apparently and if it ever goes to court, there is a presumption that everyone involved is respectable and meant no harm - it was all just poor decision making but no malice.

    I hope nobody who hears this story shops in any of those franchises and I hope the story travels far and wide. The CEO’s behavior on camera was very informative about the intentions behind the act.

    The most infuriating thing is that they could walk away from the stock and be materially no worse off. Its not like they go 200,000 into debt, but for the person it belongs to, it is devastating.

  • percent@infosec.pub
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    6 days ago

    Is there any particular that there are no names mentioned in the post or any of the comments?

    I hope I’m not breaking any rules my mentioning names, but this post doesn’t really surface in search results…

    The YouTuber’s name is Reckless Ben, and the company’s name is Bricks & Minifigs (BAM).

    • godsammitdam@lemmy.zipOP
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      6 days ago

      Nah, I just am too used to censoring stuff for work. Updated, including a name and shame section.

      • TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5 days ago

        That’s a good habit to have, I wish more people would do that. But in this case, yeah, they could use public shaming. Thanks!

    • percent@infosec.pub
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      4 days ago

      EDIT: Part 2 is now available for free


      Also, Part 2 is on his Patreon. If there’s room in your budget, I really don’t think you’ll regret it. Part 2 gets wayyy worse. (If it’s not in the budget, just wait. He’ll publish it for free soon.)

      He’ll probably have some massive lawyer fees in the near future as this goes to court, so at least the money would help with that.

  • CallMeButtLove@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    I watched the whole thing. Great video from start to finish, including part 2. Absolutely 100% fuck this company. Not only am I energized by how obvious the crime is, but also by the infuriating corruption of the police force protecting it. The company thought they could swoop in and underhandedly steal (or in their words “acquire”) all those Legos, but they double and triple downed when they got caught. They are so clearly in the wrong and I hope justice is served.

    I know there’s such a thing as “rage bait”, but is there such a thing as a “rage frenzy”? Because from what I have seen (but have not independently verified) this company sucks big time.

    • Daughter_of_Sekhmet@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Everything regarding this case is bonkers but the blatant, banana dictatorship police is horrifying. The Epstein Class can eat babies and corporations like BAM steal from old people in broad daylight and leaving a pile of evidence, yet so far nothing has happened. I worry that if USA doesn’t get it shit together there will be a significant surge in vigilantism.

      Looks like the social contract is dead, buried and being feasted on by maggots.

  • Asetru@feddit.org
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    7 days ago

    I usually don’t watch those lengthy influencer made videos… but man, this was so rage inducing and i just kept going. I’m boiling inside.

    • percent@infosec.pub
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      6 days ago

      Reckless Ben is a bit different. I’ve been a subscriber for years. He goes deep with his… “investigations”? I’m not really sure what to call what he does, but this LEGO thing is not his first rodeo

    • godsammitdam@lemmy.zipOP
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      6 days ago

      Part 2 is even worse. It should be uploaded soon to youtube, but the police show their corruption, they raid and arrest him and his friends for stealing the legos cause the guys lied and said they did. There is apparently a part 3 as well.

  • rmrf@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    This is the first Mr. Beast-esque video I’ve really enjoyed. I have my criticisms as I’m sure we all do, but 35 minutes in I consider it absolutely solid and thank OP for bringing it to my attention.

    Edit: one of my critiques was that he calls everything a “loophole”; even things that are simply illegal. He then goes on to create an actually creative loophole–the only true one I’ve noticed in the video–with their method to work around the debt splitting limitation. As much as I’d love to see a lawyer cross the employees in front of the shop owner at trial, it managed to scratch my itch

    Edit 2: Found what I believe to be part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxZPfj8AlmY This might be a huge step towards mainstream class consciousness lol, I think it’s the most well-documented case of the deceptive tactics police use to build criminal cases, the fact legitimized violent forces exist to protect property and business interests, and how entire police forces can be corrupted over relatively minor things all in one.

    • bcgm3@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Totally agree with everything here, just wanted to point out that your link to part 2 is actually the same link as OP (part 1).