The Bricks and Minifigs lawsuit is a defamation, racketeering, harassment, and extortion case the LEGO resale franchise filed on May 27, 2026 in Utah’s Fourth District Court against YouTuber Benjamin Schneider, who posts as “Reckless Ben,” and consignor Bryan Mansell. The company is responding to a viral video series that accused it of stealing a Star Wars LEGO collection said to be worth as much as $200,000. It seeks more than $300,000 in damages and already has a temporary restraining order in place. The suit is one of several active legal fights tied to the same collection, including a separate lawsuit by a former franchisee, ten small claims judgments, and misdemeanor criminal charges against Schneider in Utah.
How the Dispute Started
In 2023, Bryan Mansell placed a Star Wars LEGO collection he and his 83-year-old father Ed had built since the early 2000s on consignment with Chrystal Law, then the franchise owner of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Keizer, Oregon (often called the Salem location). The family had put roughly $30,000 into the collection over two decades. Under the arrangement, the store would sell pieces and split proceeds, and unsold inventory would remain the Mansells’ property.
The collection’s value is contested. Schneider and the Mansells put it near $200,000. Bricks & Minifigs corporate says its documentation points to something between $60,000 and $100,000. The company also says Law sold about $52,000 of the collection while she ran the store, while Mansell says he received only about $15,000.
Bricks & Minifigs terminated Law’s franchise agreement in November 2024, citing financial defaults and other breaches. New franchisees Brandon Best and Joshua Johnson took over and said they had no record of any consignment agreement. Corporate has maintained that consignment deals were never authorized under the franchise model and that it was unaware of Law’s side arrangement. When it took possession of the store, the company says, little Star Wars inventory remained; it identified sets valued between $2,000 and $5,000 that might belong to the Mansells and offered to return them. The family declined.
The Videos That Prompted the Lawsuit
On May 21, 2026, Schneider posted “I tracked down the thief who stole $200,000 of Lego,” which has drawn 5.8 million views. Over the following weeks he released seven more videos accusing Bricks & Minifigs of corporate corruption and local police of a coverup.
Schneider acknowledged aggressive tactics on camera. He created a website called “We Steal From Old People” using the company’s logo, placed signs at the Salem store, and filmed confrontations at stores and private residences. He also admitted impersonating delivery personnel, religious congregants, and officers of the court to attempt service of legal papers on franchise owner Joshua Johnson.
A GoFundMe he launched for the Mansell family had raised $128,355 by May 31, 2026, passed $200,000 by June 2, and climbed past $670,000 by mid-June. The company says franchisees at unrelated locations were review-bombed and harassed, teenage employees were confronted on camera, and families connected to the franchise were followed to their homes. The Salem store received bomb threats and was permanently closed on June 4, 2026.
What the Company’s Complaint Alleges
The Utah complaint alleges defamation, profiteering, racketeering under the RICO Act, and harassment, and describes the defendants’ conduct as a “malicious and intentional campaign of extortion and destruction.” It seeks over $300,000 in damages.
On May 28, 2026, the court granted a temporary restraining order barring Schneider and Mansell from posting or disseminating “false, misleading, harassing, interfering, defamatory or unlawful images or content” about the plaintiffs. The order also requires Schneider to stay at least 1,000 yards from the homes of company employees. A preliminary injunction hearing was set for June 30, 2026. On June 9, Schneider released what he called his final video, saying the lawsuit and restraining order required him to stay silent to avoid jail.
Bryan Mansell’s inclusion as a co-defendant has drawn attention because his family is widely seen as the injured party in the underlying consignment dispute. CEO Ammon McNeff has said publicly that the company is open to dropping Mansell from the case if he agrees to sit down and reconcile the collection’s records and sales data.
The Former Franchisee’s Parallel Lawsuit
In March 2026, Chrystal Law, her partner Benjamin Gorman, and their LLC filed their own suit against Bricks & Minifigs Franchising in Utah’s Business and Chancery Court (case number 260200029, assigned to Judge Rita Cornish). They allege wrongful termination of the franchise agreement, seizure of store assets and inventory, breach of contract, fraud in the inducement, conversion, and defamation.
Their complaint contends that the payment defaults cited to justify repossessing the store in November 2024 were “problems of Bricks & Minifigs’s own making.” They say corporate failed to properly transfer the store’s bank account and property lease after they became franchisees, causing automated royalty payments to fail and rent checks to bounce, and that the company restructured and accepted those issues for months before terminating them. The complaint alleges confiscation of assets and merchandise worth over $100,000 without compensation.
Video footage reportedly captures Ki McAllister, identified as a Bricks & Minifigs executive, discouraging Law and Gorman from contesting the takeover and saying the warning “sounds like a threat… because in a way it is.” Additional footage reportedly shows a company representative acknowledging on a call that Bricks & Minifigs would take on the consignment liability for the Mansell collection during the ownership transition. The company has argued that McAllister was a low-level employee whose statements do not bind the corporation.
Criminal Charges Against Schneider
Schneider was arrested twice in Utah between March 9 and March 12, 2026, according to American Fork police. He was charged on March 27 with stalking (class A misdemeanor) and targeted residential picketing (class B misdemeanor), along with disorderly conduct and criminal trespass tied to confrontations near a Provo business park and a Utah residence. A protective order granted on May 20, 2026 bars him from contacting Joshua Johnson or approaching his home.
Schneider claimed in a video that he had fled to Mexico, but police said in late May 2026 that there were no active warrants for him in Utah and that they were not seeking him. His next criminal hearing was scheduled for July 1, 2026, with permission to represent himself. The American Fork Police Department has said it is not taking sides in the business dispute and is limited to investigating potential criminal conduct.
What Happened to the Collection
The underlying factual question has not been resolved. Bricks & Minifigs has released a 26-page point-of-sale document showing $61,430.63 in Star Wars lot sales at the Keizer store and says more than half the collection was sold or moved out before the November 2024 ownership change. The company blames what it calls “gross negligence” by Law, including unauthorized consignment deals, multiple sets of books, and underreported sales.
Law disputes the timeline and the accuracy of the records and says she has not yet reviewed the point-of-sale document. Schneider and the Mansells contend that corporate and the new franchisees knowingly took control of remaining inventory during the transition and refused to account for or return unsold items. No criminal charges have been filed in Oregon related to the alleged theft.
The Salem Store’s Closure and Small Claims Judgments
Ten small claims cases were filed against the Keizer franchise. When the store failed to appear, default judgments were entered in each. It was permanently shuttered the following day, June 4, 2026. Bricks & Minifigs announced a “complete mutual separation” from franchise owners Best and Johnson, citing the impact of the viral campaign. McNeff noted that Best was also no longer the owner of a Bricks & Minifigs franchise he had operated in Eugene, Oregon.
The Patreon Request
On May 29, 2026, Bricks & Minifigs submitted a formal complaint to Patreon requesting the removal of Schneider’s page, attaching the temporary restraining order and the motion for a preliminary injunction. Patreon’s trust and safety team reviewed the request and declined to act. CEO Jack Conte said in a public video that the platform had “determined that Bricks and Minifigs can stuff it. We’re keeping Ben’s page up. And if Bricks and Minifigs doesn’t like that, they can sue us.”