If you’ve spent a single millisecond on the internet in the past two weeks, you’re likely already aware of the name “Reckless Ben.” Ben “Reckless” Schneider’s quest to reclaim a $200,000 Lego Star Wars collection has taken some truly bizarre turns over the last week, and the story has moved at such a rapid pace that, even though it’s quite literally my job, I’ve been struggling to keep up with it.
It’s also ballooned into such a big story that Ben’s crusade against Lego resellers Bricks & Minifigs has managed to fully breach the internet’s containment, as yesterday my own mother even asked me if I’ve “heard about this Lego thing on the news.” With that in mind, it’s probably a good idea for us all to go over the story so far so that we’re prepared for whatever ridiculous twists await us in Ben’s ongoing investigation (and so that you can forward this article to your parents instead of explaining it to them).
The Pre-Reckless Context
In November 2023, Bryan Mansell and his father, Eric Mansell, consigned a hefty Lego Star Wars collection, valued at somewhere between $200,000 and $250,000, over to a Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem, Oregon. The Mansells decided to sell their collection through Bricks & Minifigs due to Eric’s declining health and, according to the franchise owners at the time, Chrystal Law and Benjamin Gorman, roughly half of the Mansell’s collection had sold by November 2024.
Likewise, in November 2024, per the details outlined in a lawsuit against Reckless Ben by Bricks & Minifigs Franchising (BAMF), the company issued a Notice of Immediate Termination against the Bricks & Minifigs store in Oregon, alleging that store owners Law and Gorman had defaulted on their accounts. As a result, the Mansells’ remaining consigned inventory was allegedly repossessed by Bricks & Minifigs Franchising.
This is where the dispute between the Mansells and Bricks & Minifigs first began, as, according to Law and Gorman, at least some of the Mansell family’s remaining Lego collection was still present in the Salem, Oregon store when it’s owners’ franchising agreement was immediately terminated by Bricks & Minifigs Franchising. BAMF and the new owners of the Salem, Oregon store stated that the Mansells’ agreement was only with the previous owners, and they were not in possession of their collection. So what happened to it? The Mansells believe that the new owners, Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson, have effectively stolen it, and this is what Reckless Ben set out to investigate.
Reckless Ben’s First Video Drops
Ben Schneider, better known as Reckless Ben, is an interesting guy. He started off his YouTube career by performing slacklining tricks. Slacklining is like tightrope walking, but on a really bouncy rope. Ben apparently even broke a world record for doing the most flips on a slackline in 2021, while Snoop Dogg and Cody Rhodes threw bouncy balls at him. Probably one of Ben’s least exciting antics, honestly.
If you knew of Ben before his Lego-based work, that’s likely because you’ve watched his videos about messing with the Church of Scientology or his investigation into the “extreme” horror house attraction McKamey Manor. However, on May 21, Ben suddenly became the internet’s main character following the release of the first part of his investigation into the Mansells’ missing Lego collection, titled “I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of LEGO.”
The Allegations
At this point, Ben’s investigation mainly focused on the corporate side of Bricks & Minifigs Franchising. When he wasn’t trying to annoy BAMF into submission by doing stuff like holding “indoctrination” ceremonies for its staff and raffling off the Mansells’ Lego collection via a non-profit charity registered under his “religion” (which is named Scientology Sucks), Ben was looking into the legal side of the Mansell family’s consignment deal.
It’s important to note here that on the same day that Ben posted his first Lego investigation video, May 21, Bricks & Minifigs Corporate released a statement addressing the Mansell family’s claims: “It is vital to understand that Bricks & Minifigs Corporate (BAM Franchising, Inc.) was not a party to [the consignment with the store’s original owners], nor were subsequent franchisees who took on the ownership of the Salem location. Corporate did not sign, approve, or authorize this arrangement.”
The point of contention between the Mansells and Bricks & Minifigs Franchising at this stage lies with Chrystal Law and Benjamin Gorman; the previous owners of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem, Oregon. Law and Gorman allege that they made Bricks & Minifigs aware of the consignment deal when BAMF corporate ended their contract and kicked them out of their store via its new owner, Brandon Best, in November 2024. In fact, Law and Gorman have provided the security footage from the night that Best appeared to inform them that their franchising contract had been terminated.
This was enough proof for Ben to track down the new owner of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem, Oregon, and, in a bid to reclaim the Mansells’ collection, attempt to serve him with legal papers.
Reckless Ben’s Second Video Drops
On May 30, Ben released the second part of his investigation, titled “I got arrested because of legos.” In his first video, Ben alluded to a greater story involving the American Fork Police Department in Utah as, he claimed, “the police are actively working with the thieves to cover everything up.” Quite the dramatic accusation.
Of course, that’s exactly why this story has become so big, as the second part of Ben’s investigation has the overwhelming majority of folks following the saga on the internet convinced that American Fork’s police department is colluding with Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson, the new owners of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem, Oregon, to hamper Ben’s investigation. According to Ben, the officers investigating the case are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, alongside Best and Johnson, and are colluding in this scheme as a result of this connection.
During his attempts to serve Best and Johnson with legal papers in the state of Utah, Ben and his film crew were stopped, searched, and arrested by American Fork’s police department on several occasions. This includes his car being searched after police allegedly received a tip that it contained heroin, and his Airbnb being raided on suspicion that it housed the Mansell family’s Lego collection. Ben also alleged in his video that several parts of the audio in the American Fork Police Department’s body cam footage had been redacted to obfuscate their involvement with Best and Joshua.
On March 10, 2026, Ben and several members of his film crew were arrested and formally charged with several crimes including stalking, targeted picketing, and trespassing. However, Ben’s case was reviewed by a judge and he was released on bail…only for American Fork’s police department to issue another arrest warrant against Ben, which resulted in him fleeing to Mexico so he could avoid capture. Remember when this story used to be about a Lego Star Wars collection?
The Wait For Part 3
You may have assumed that Ben’s departure to Mexico would have hindered his ability to continue his investigation but, if anything, the juiciest parts of this story have dropped within the last five days.
For instance, Bricks & Minifigs Franchising issued a takedown notice against Ben’s Patreon page earlier this month. In response, Patreon’s CEO, Jack Conte, told Bricks & Minifigs to “stuff it,” and that they could sue Patreon instead.
Likewise, Bricks & Minifigs Franchising began the process of suing both Reckless Ben and Bryan Mansell, accusing the two of creating a “coordinated multi-platform campaign” against the company that contains “false accusations, fabricated claims, deceptive practices and manufactured confrontations to extort money, racketeer, profiteer and damage [the] Plaintiffs and their business interests.”
And on May 30, American Fork Police Chief Cameron Paul released a video addressing the allegations lodged against the American Fork Police Department, as well explaining the “mystery” arrest warrant that had been issued against Ben. The video itself isn’t that relevant, but the Dropbox link included in its description by American Fork’s police department will be very relevant very shortly.
American Fork Police Department’s Unredacted Body Cam Footage Allegedly Leaks Online
It’s currently unconfirmed whether American Fork’s police department was hacked or the footage was uploaded simply by mistake, but on June 3, the Dropbox link included in American Fork Police Chief Cameron Paul’s video suddenly received an update: a new folder titled “Unredacted Body & Dashcam,” which, as you might have guessed, seemingly contains the unredacted footage from Ben’s interactions with American Fork’s officers.
Soon thereafter, Reckless Ben released a video featuring the alleged unredacted audio. According to Ben, the leaked footage in question reveals two interesting unredacted conversations of note: a lengthy chat between an American Fork police officer and Joshua Johnson, in which the police officer protects Johnson from being served with papers from Ben, and a conversation between two American Fork police officers after Ben’s Airbnb was raided, in which the officers imply they have a prior relationship with the Airbnb’s owner.
At this point in time, we still can’t confirm whether the footage is indeed real, nor how it was leaked, but it does neatly tie us into the latest update in the story.
Bricks & Minifigs “Parts Ways” With Brandon Best And Joshua Johnson
On June 4, Bricks & Minifigs announced the “immediate closure” of its store in Salem, Oregon, and that they’d reached a “mutual agreement to part ways with franchise owners Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson due to a devastating social media campaign.”
“We’ve been asking for documentation for a long time,” stated Ammon McNeff, Bricks & Minifigs’ CEO. “We’d asked Mr. Mansell and others and did not receive enough to give us a clear picture until recently, thanks to internal and external operations assistance, and those who continue to stand with us, and we finally have enough to proceed with a resolution…And now that we do, Bryan, we continue our offer to sit down with you and are prepared to discuss dropping the lawsuit against you.”
“Let’s go through the spreadsheets and POS data together and ensure you are made whole monetarily and ensure that whatever Star Wars LEGO was or remains in the Salem store, whether you identify as yours or not, you can have it,” continued McNeff. “We will ensure you are compensated for anything unaccounted for, including what Ms. Law/Gorman failed to compensate you for without your knowledge. We’re ready when you are.”
On one hand, this is certainly closer to the outcome that the Mansell family were hoping for, but on the other hand…it’s not quite the resolution that the internet clearly wants. Law and Gorman are still being thrown under the bus here, and it doesn’t really address the suspicion surrounding American Fork Police Department’s interactions with Best and Johnson.
On the plus side, if you truly hate Bricks & Minifigs Franchising, I do have some good news for you: The owners of Custom Minifigs, who are one of Bricks and Minifigs’ suppliers, announced that they are ending their business arrangement with BAMF following the “serious allegations” issued against the company “by YouTuber Reckless Ben.”
Reckless Ben’s ‘Final Message’
Dramatic subheading aside, there was a pretty big update in the story yesterday. On June 9, Ben shared a new video simply titled “bad news.” Turns out that on May 28, “BAM FRANCHISING, INC.” and pals filed a TRO (temporary restraining order) against Ben, Bryan Mansell, and a fellow named Victor Nguyen with the Utah Fourth Judicial District Court. We haven’t really needed to cover Nguyen so far, but he made the silly fake influencer skit in Ben’s first video in this whole saga. Honestly, I’m surprised BAMF included him in the TRO.
At some point in the last 48 hours, judge Tony F. Graf, Jr. approved for the TRO to be served via email, which means that, as it’s now in effect, Ben can no longer post the third and final part of his investigation. Even though, in Ben’s own words, “Part 3 is finally finished,” the real issue is that the Mansell family’s GoFundMe, which stands at roughly $456,000 as of this writing, would be put at risk if he were to publish it: “Normally I would be like, ‘screw the big guy telling me what to do, I’m gonna do what’s morally right.’ But, in this situation, if I do that, then all my friends get screwed with this lawsuit, and we lose all this GoFundMe money we raised, like, immediately.”
That’s the latest update, but, let’s be real: it’s definitely not going to be the final one. I think we’ll definitely still see Part 3 of Ben’s investigation at some point in the near future. Call it an educated guess or a hunch, but releasing it sounds like a pretty reckless thing to do…if you catch my drift.
