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Terms and conditions apply. This $200,000 Lego scandal is literally one of the craziest things I've ever

seen. The Nazi misogyny situation that you might not be aware of is getting even worse. And we've got huge news on Trump's gerrymandering wars. We're talking about all of that on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show you daily dive into the news. So buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it, starting with this. Because we have got to talk about what may be the greatest YouTube conspiracy of the decade. You've got corporate Lego thieves, vigilante YouTubers, legal battles, police raids, even the Mormon churches involved. And it all starts with one of the biggest Lego collections in the entire world. Right to meet the main guy behind this story, Brian Mansell. And Brian says that his dad, he began collecting Star Wars Lego sets in the early 2000s. He's been racking him up for some 20 years until he had a collection worth up to $200,000.

But then in November of 2023, with his dad suffering from health complications, Brian decides, hey, it's time to sell the Legos. And so he goes to a franchise Lego store in Salem, Kaiser, Oregon. It's called bricks and mini figs, and he signs a consignment agreement with its owner, Crystal Law Gorman. And according to the contract, and this was reviewed by the Salem Business Journal, while Brian would retain full ownership over the Lego sets, Bricks and Minifigs, they'd sell them out of its store giving Brian 65% of the proceeds. But then here's where it gets complicated, right? Because one year later, Gorman was planning to leave the country, so she reached out to Bricks and Minifig's corporate office. And both sides of that exchange, they have wildly different accounts of what happened next. Corporate's chief executive, Amin McNeff?

He claims that Gorman wanted to close the store, but he told her that wasn't an option, she then becomes uncooperative, and he terminates the franchise agreement. And since according to him, Gorman owed corporate some $200,000, that allowed him to seize the store's assets to pay off her debts. But in Gorman's telling the story, she says she wanted to sell the store, not just close it, but corporate seized it immediately, then threatened her, wouldn't let her conduct an inventory, and then forced her out the same night. And she also disputes that $200,000 debt and argues that corporate used it as a pretext to take the entire store. But either way, for Brian, he says that the issue for him was that all the Lego sets that he legally owned were still lining the store's shelves. And so then with all this, you had Gorman releasing what she claims is video footage from the store in which you can hear her telling a corporate representative about Brian's agreement and you have the rep replying that the store's new owners, he'll take it over. These are ones that he has not been paid his percentage yet. And if I don't have the tickets, I won't know how much I need to pay. That's a business thing and not necessarily you are just taking on the business he kicks on all that kind of time. So Brian, he then reportedly sends a letter to the store's new owners, canceling the agreement, demanding the money that he was owed, and asked for any unsold Lego sets back. But according to Brian, the new owners denied any knowledge of that agreement and corporate

told him to take it up with Gorman.

But of course, he was like, what are you talking about?

Gorman doesn't own the store anymore. You guys own it and you have my Legos. But I'm also claiming that this is what happened when he argued with a corporate rep about it. The guy, just looks at me, crosses his arms and goes, let me tell you what's going to happen.

If we go to court, we're gonna drag this thing out so long and you're gonna end up spending so much more money than your collection is ever worth or what you ever would have gotten on it, that it ain't worth it, man. And so that is where YouTuber Ben Schneider, also known as reckless Ben comes in. And Ben's known for these investigative projects where he puts on spy glasses and goes into place

like the Church of Scientology or Macaamy Manor at that haunted house attraction accused of abuse

that Hulu turned into a documentary.

And while his latest project is actually to get Brian his Legos back.

But they turned out to be so much more complicated than he ever could have imagined.

And I want to preface here just by saying so much of this story that we have is only through Ben's point of view up to this point. So just keep that in mind. But first, he went to the local bricks and minifig store, but the manager there told him to go to corporate. So then he goes to corporate headquarters, but they tell him to talk to the local store owners. So he then goes back to the store and he tells them what corporate said. But the manager accuses him of harassment, calls a police, and trespassed him for life. And at this point, he wants to talk to the store's owner, Josh Johnson directly, but he doesn't have the guy's phone number, so he gets a little creative. Right, because in Ben's mind, the Bricks and Minifigs employees were brainwashed, so he decided to create what he called his own Lego cult by brainwashing an employee to join his side. And to pull this off, he had his friend Victor poses a famous YouTuber who is filming a big video at the store. My name's Victor, we're going to bricks and mini figs. Let's go! So Victor set up a fake competition, then invited the employee who won it to accept her award. He's a Lego Queen! Yes, she's a Lego Queen! Lego Queen! Lego Queen! Lego Queen! Then, after getting her trust, they asked her about Brian's Legos. I know some of it. They were gonna reimburse him for everything, and then I think they did, and he's still upset about everything, which I get. They reimbursed him for everything? Yeah. Yeah, we don't have any of his stuff on the shelves. Really? Yeah, we don't have any of it. We think they've been lying to you.

So these were all the sets in the store, and they're all metadata time stamped. Wait, we do have these ones. Yeah, those are all his. No, some of them I think we do still have... Yeah, I know you guys do. You showed me one of them when I am. Did I? Wait.

I got your, it's called on you?

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