More videos leaked.

 Uh oh someone hacked the American Fork PD and got the full unredacted videos

Some video breakdowns

I am obsessed with this story so I am trying to keep a vague timeline for y'all.

 This is a youtube video from a Law Enforcement Office reacting to the traffic stop video. There was a lot on this video I had not seen before.

This video breaks down all of the legal matters happening and what they mean.

And finally the CEO of Patreon gets involved...

Interesting points here,
1) Patreon is not a party to the lawsuit. The court order does not mean anything to Patreon anyway, however, his comment of "Sue us" is a taunt to try and bring them into the lawsuit.
2) Until "Reckless Ben" is served the papers there will not be any takedowns. Can you smell the irony?

Updated Timeline of the Bricks & Minifigs Scandal

Added in The AFPD & Reckless Ben Timeline

The Consignment Agreement Signed

November 2023

Bryan Mansell and his family signed a formal consignment agreement with the franchise owner of the Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem-Keizer, Oregon. The family handed over a massive, 15-year-old Lego Star Wars collection featuring roughly 1,200 minifigures and highly valuable sets. Under the terms, the store would sell sets, keep a 35% commission, and return all unsold items by January 2025. The store publicly celebrated the collection on Facebook, noting it was estimated to be worth well over $200,000.

Corporate Seizure of the Store

November 2024

The franchise owners approached BAM Corporate about potentially selling or exiting the business because they planned to leave the country. Instead of a smooth transition, BAM Corporate immediately sent a representative to lock down and seize the store, allegedly removing the owners that same night without giving them a chance to perform a formal inventory audit.

The Disappearance & Dispute

Late 2024 - Early 2025

When the Mansell family attempted to reclaim their unsold collection following the corporate takeover, they discovered the vast majority of it was missing or unaccounted for. BAM Corporate claimed they had no knowledge of the "unauthorized" consignment contract, asserting that franchise locations operate independently.

Reckless Ben Gets Involved

Spring 2026

YouTuber and investigative creator Reckless Ben launched a multi-part video series documenting his attempts to help the Mansell family retrieve their collection or receive compensation. The videos featured hidden camera footage, confrontations with store operators, and interviews with the original franchise owners. The series quickly pulled back the curtain on the dispute, drawing millions of views across social media.

Utah Escalation: The 'UPS' Delivery

March 8, 2026

Ben and his production team traveled to Utah (where BAM corporate is headquartered) to serve legal papers to corporate staff. A conflict began when BAM employee Joshua Johnson called American Fork Police to report a suspicious package dropped off at his home by a man wearing a baseball cap with a "UPS" logo taped to it. The package contained rubber ducks—a classic Reckless Ben calling card. AFPD officers pulled over Ben's crew nearby, setting a highly tense baseline with local authorities.

The First Arrest & Stalking Charges

March 11, 2026 (Evening)

Following continued presence outside Johnson’s home to capture video footage and serve papers, AFPD officers moved in and arrested Ben on the street. He was booked into the Utah County Jail on misdemeanor charges of stalking, targeted residential picketing, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespass. While Ben was in custody, officers conducted an extensive, hours-long roadside search of his production vehicle, heavily checking for drugs in what Ben's team claimed was a retaliatory fishing expedition. Ben was bailed out later that night.

The Second Arrest in One Night

March 11, 2026 (Late Night)

Shortly after being bailed out of jail, Ben immediately went back out into the field to continue filming and attempting to serve papers. AFPD officers spotted him and promptly arrested him a second time within a matter of hours for violating his bail conditions and continuing the alleged stalking behavior, landing him back in a cell.

The Airbnb Raid & Shoulder Injury

March 12, 2026 (Morning)

Having secured a search warrant signed by a local judge to explicitly look for stolen LEGO merchandise, the American Fork Police Department executed a dynamic tactical raid on the Airbnb where Ben's production crew was staying. During the chaotic containment of the property, officers used physical force to restrain Ben. The struggle—recorded on police body cams and the crew's backup cameras—resulted in the dislocation of Ben's shoulder. A total of five crew members were detained, though a thorough search of the house yielded zero stolen Lego sets.

The Controversy Explodes Online

Mid-May 2026

Ben released the raw footage of his police interactions, the vehicle toss, and the Airbnb takedown on YouTube and Patreon, gaining millions of views. The online community (particularly r/lego and r/legocirclejerk) exploded in outrage. Because BAM corporate leadership and multiple AFPD officers are BYU alumni and active members of the local community, fans loudly accused the police department of operating a corrupt "good old boys" network to shield a wealthy local corporation by brutalizing an outside creator.

BAM Corporate Statement Issued

May 21, 2026

Facing an avalanche of review-bombing, boycotts, and public anger, Bricks & Minifigs Corporate released an official statement. They argued that a deeper dive into past sales receipts revealed many of the sets had actually been sold by the original franchise owners before the corporate takeover. They heavily condemned the online community for doxxing local staff, unauthorized filming, and creating an unsafe environment in their stores.

Police Chief Responds; Leaked Corporate Strategy

May 29, 2026

With the department facing severe national scrutiny, American Fork Police Chief Cameron Paul released a 26-minute official video statement detailing a day-by-day account of the encounters, fiercely defending his officers' use of force and arguing Ben's behavior crossed the line into criminal harassment. Concurrently, Ben leaked an internal corporate email revealing BAM's back-end strategy to use Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) and platform takedowns to aggressively scrub the viral videos from YouTube and Patreon.

Current Status

The situation has completely transformed from a consumer property dispute into a complex criminal and international legal battle:

• The Stolen Asset Mystery: The original Salem-Keizer franchise location has permanently shut down amidst the drama. While BAM corporate maintains the consignment agreement was an "unauthorized local contract," the community remains deeply hostile to the brand, arguing that corporate clearly benefited from the marketing of the $200,000 collection before choosing to lock the doors and keep the inventory.

• The Fugitive Story: Ben Schneider is formally facing multiple criminal misdemeanor counts in Utah and was scheduled for a mandatory court appearance on June 8, 2026. However, facing the threat of stacked picketing and stalking charges that prosecutors indicated could carry up to five years of prison time, Ben publicly announced that he has fled the United States for Mexico to avoid prosecution.

Brick and Minifigs scandal

 A lot a noise around this, I pulled together a timeline

Timeline of Events

The Consignment Agreement

November 2023

Bryan Mansell and his family signed a formal consignment agreement with Chrystal Law-Gorman, the owner of the franchise-operated Bricks & Minifigs store in Salem-Keizer, Oregon. The family handed over a massive, 15-year-old Lego Star Wars collection featuring roughly 1,200 minifigures and highly valuable sets. Under the terms, the store would sell sets, keep a 35% commission, and return all unsold items by January 2025. The store publicly celebrated the collection on Facebook, noting it was estimated to be worth well over $200,000.

Corporate Seizure of the Store

November 2024

The franchise owners approached BAM Corporate about potentially selling or exiting the business because they planned to leave the country. Instead of a smooth transition, BAM Corporate immediately sent a representative to lock down and seize the store, allegedly removing the owners that same night without giving them a chance to perform a formal inventory audit.

The Disappearance & Dispute

Late 2024 - Early 2025

When the Mansell family attempted to reclaim their unsold collection following the corporate takeover, they discovered the vast majority of it was missing or unaccounted for. BAM Corporate claimed they had no knowledge of the "unauthorized" consignment contract, asserting that franchise locations operate independently.

Reckless Ben Gets Involved

Spring 2026

YouTuber and investigative creator Reckless Ben launched a multi-part video series documenting his attempts to help the Mansell family retrieve their collection or receive compensation. The videos featured hidden camera footage, confrontations with store operators, and interviews with the original franchise owners. The series quickly pulled back the curtain on the dispute, drawing millions of views across social media.

The Backlash Escalates

May 2026

The controversy exploded on Reddit (specifically r/lego and r/legocirclejerk). The online community actively boycotted the brand, review-bombed BAM locations, and flooded the company’s social media pages. Public outrage intensified over allegations in the videos that local law enforcement officers involved in the investigation had close, cozy social ties to the new store operators and corporate leadership, leading to claims of corruption and biased search warrants against the internet investigators.

Corporate Statement Issued

May 21, 2026

Facing immense public pressure, Bricks & Minifigs Corporate released an official statement. They argued that a deeper dive into past sales receipts revealed many of the sets had actually been sold by the original franchise owners before the corporate takeover. They also stated they had offered back the small portion of the collection they could verify, but the family refused the partial return. BAM heavily condemned the online community for doxxing local staff, unauthorized filming, and creating an unsafe environment in their stores.

Maybe more if I have time.

Clear as ice.

 

Ok, time to ice-splain

This is a wall of text but extremely easy to accomplish. Refrigerator ice comes out very white, but if you look closely it is very clear around the edges and white in the center. Refrigerator ice freezes from the outside in.

The white bits are all the impurities in the water, those impurities freeze LAST. The trick is to control the direction that the ice freezes, this process is called, simply, directional freezing. There are a lot of ways to do this, but this ice tray from amazon is the easiest.

How does it work?

The tray insulates the tray on 5 of the 6 sides with styrofoam. The 6th side, the top, is the only exposed part of the water, therefor it will freeze first. All the impurities (the white bits) will be forced downwards into the water reservoir below. When complete and you separate the silicon mold at the top, those cubes will all be uniform in size and perfectly clear (they may have some frost right on the top surface, but if you let the cubes stand alone in a room for 5 minutes they will clear up).

Why clear ice?

1. it looks bad ass
2. it tastes better since all the impurities are removed, they will not get into your drink and foul up the taste
3. it will stay colder for a longer amount of time.

The level of effort is stupid-easy. The hardest thing you are going to do is pour water. Everything else is just time and patience.If you want a science experiment you can try it in a very small batch. Get a metal yeti/stanley/tervis tumbler. It will need to be one of the slightly conical ones (with perfectly straight 90degree angles you will never get the ice out)

1. Fill the tumbler 90% full of water and put it upright in your freezer without a lid.
2. Let it freeze for 18-20 hours.
3. Take the tumbler out and set it on the counter for at least an hour.
1. it needs to thaw just a tiny amount otherwise the tumbler will not let the ice out of the vessel.
4. After an hour the ice cylinder should slide out (do this over a sink, there will be very cold water involved) If it doesnt want to come out give it a little more time. The cylinder will be half clear and half VERY white.
5. You can chip away the white puts with an ice pick or cut it away with a serrated bread knife.

This won't make a lot at one time, but if you only have one cocktail a week, it is an easy way to accomplish the task.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjk6rIPLiNQ/

Lego: First pass: Macro sorting

 So you have a few thousand Lego bricks and want to organize them. Where do you start?

The most common approach is dump them all out on a large surface, get a few storage containers, and sort by color. This works for storing the bricks but has some shortfalls. 

1. Not efficient if you actually want to build anything with what you have in inventory.
2. New bricks (new to the collections and/or new styles of bricks) will just get lost in the mesh
3. If  you want to build something and you go searching for a specific part, it will be much easier to locate, e.g. finding a grey 2x1 plate will be easier to find in a mess of other 2x1 plates than in a bin of all grey parts.
4. Boring and unimaginative

Brick Architect has a good guide on this. He breaks everything into six categories: Bricks, plates, tiles, slope, technic, and SNOT (Studs Not On Top).

But... it feels too confined.

I use a technique that I refer to was macro sorting. It is a combo of sorting by type or size.  

I use these categories (You can rearrange these as you see fit, but my biggest piece of advice is be consistent.):

1. combined plates and tiles (separate them later, for now keep them together), any shape as long as it is the 1/3 height
1. move anything larger than 4x4 (16 studs) to a separate bin, these take up a lot of space.
2. Bricks (anything 1 block high and all right angles is a brick, even if it has decor on it
1. unless it is a technic
3. Slopes, any brick that changes direction from top to bottom of the brick is a slope, this includes arches
1. unless it is a windshield or wheel well
4. SNOT, anything where the studs are in weird places and/or on more than one side, plus things like hinges, fences
1. lots of exceptions here
5. decorations, this is broad and includes plants, minifigs, any items designed to be held by a minifig, flags, signs, and many things I am unsure where else to put. For whatever reason I also put anything designed to clip together in here
6. technic, anything intended to be part of a moving assembly that has the ability to connect in non-stud ways
7. vehicle chassis and parts, boat parts, wheels, tires, wheel wells, motorcycles, cranes, winches, forklifts, etc
8. Large items: walls, windows, doors, bricks that are more than 1 brick high, windshields, canopies

I will update this as I think of things, but remember, this is just your first pass. We will break things down further as we go along.

The streets of heaven are paved with gold Lego bricks

I have had a love affair with Lego since I was around 3-4 years old. I am now pushing 50 and I have recently rekindled this flame.

A little personal history, to put things in perspective. 

My father is a rocket scientist, an honest to goodness aeronautical engineer. I always thought this was a pretty cool thing to have in my family, but I also learned that it meant that engineering was in my blood. In my day job I am an operations engineer for technology. In short, I make things work with computers, either with networking, software, or even just technical processes. My job is to get to a fully operation battle station as quickly as possible. This requires a skill for organization and administration. A place for everything and everything in its place.

I have recently begun applying this to Lego. 

I had not really touched my personal bricks in a couple of decades. I had a few Star Wars sets that I picked up here and there and put together and enjoyed, but nothing really large. Recently, my mental health took a bit of a turn and when confiding with a dear friend he told me that he had been buying Lego bricks in bulk (by the pound) online. His belief was that the simple act of sorting the Lego bricks set off a dopamine kick every time he sorted as few as five bricks. I decided to try it out and bought twenty pounds of random Lego online and learned he was dead on.

I wish I had taken a few pictures of the boxes when they arrived... it was absolutely heaven in a box. All these new bricks I had never seen, partially assembled sets, garish colored bricks, and then... a sudden panic attack. These were a lot of random bricks. How was I going to organize them? My personal stash were still stored away in a giant footlocker and were all organized by color. How was I going to integrate these tens of thousands of new bricks?

There are dozens, maybe hundreds of posts, blogs, and tutorials online about the "expert" or "master"  way of doing this. However, most were unrealistic to me. They had lofty expectations of time, space,  and resources. I have plenty of time, but I am a father, husband, etc so I need to be very cognizant of where I spend it.

In the next few posts I hope to share my pitfalls, snags, educations, trials and tribulations around a large influx of new bricks for the Lego layman. Stay tuned as I try and lay out a decent path to organize the chaos of organizing the little bricks from heaven.