They Tried to Throw Me in Jail Before This Documentary Came Out
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If you’re not familiar with the LEGO scandal, the tl;dw is that this YouTuber Reckless Ben (Ben Schneider) has been investigating a stolen set of LEGO worth ~$100-200k (depending on who you ask) and the local police dept and criminal justice system has been colluding with the criminals (all members of the local Mormon church) to get him to STFU. The long version is, very long. You can check his channel for more.

Previously the local police dept managed to get a warrant to raid Ben’s rental home with guns drawn and arrest him, based on what is clearly fabricated evidence. Here they appear to have done it again to get access to his Google account.

The linked video is mirrored on Peertube and timestamped to the relevant section.

Ben does also provide a copy of the subpoena in the video but I cannot vouch for its’ validity, and he has used placeholder evidence before, but that’s neither here nor there.

Anyway, the part that was relevant to this community was that in the course of their investigation they subpoenaed Google, and Google handed over basically his entire life to them. I’m sure this was very useful in their investigation.

I don’t necessarily blame Google here for complying with a subpoena, but the moral of the story is to stop giving Google your data, because everything you say and do can and will be used against you in a court of law, with or without legitimate justification, and the more stuff you give them, the more ammunition you’re providing the prosecutor.

This is also not exclusive to Google. Anything not local, self-hosted or encrypted a la Proton can be subpoenaed and the provider will have to comply. It just so happens that Google probably has more information about literally everyone in the world than any other particular entity.

  • AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml
    18·
    2 days ago

    So is the youtuber the one who got his lego stolen? Or is he just a journalist reporting on this story?

    • rumba@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      Ed Mansell consigned a massive LEGO Star Wars collection to the Salem Bricks & Minifigs store in 2023; payments later stopped and inventory allegedly vanished.

      The franchise collapsed in 2024, new owners took over, and both sides disputed whether the LEGO sets were still in the store.

      Bryan Mansell sought help, leading YouTuber Reckless Ben to investigate, confront BAM Corporate, and release viral videos in 2026.

      Chaos followed: arrests, leaked police footage, conspiracy theories, and over $500k raised for Bryan.

      The Gormans sued BAM Corporate; BAM Corporate filed a TRO, gag order, and a federal RICO lawsuit against Reckless Ben and others. That legal action against Ben was an egregious overreach. Couldn’t post anything, talk about anything to go huge distances from any BAM store in existence. RICO lawsuit is like what you charge mobsters with.

      The case moved to federal court in June 2026, with multiple civil and criminal proceedings still ongoing.

    • historicaldocuments@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 day ago

      Apart from what everyone else here has said LegalEagle did some videos on this, and the big takeaway was that everybody needed to get a lawyer ASAP instead of trying to plead their case in the court of public opinion via podcast/youtube videos/whatever. Reckless Ben got the audio from his court case and used it to make a youtube video (he was representing himself). This whole thing went from ordinary mess to Great Big Mess with no signs of anyone trying to dial it down.

      It think this is the one depending on how far the rabbit hole you want to go down:

      • AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml
        1·
        22 hours ago

        (he was representing himself)

        Nooo

        It think this is the one depending on how far the rabbit hole you want to go down:

        NOOOOO! lol that does sound like a mess.

        I do appreciate that Ben prioritizes publicizing the blatant and thorough corruption. That is a public service.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
      163·
      2 days ago

      Ben is a YouTube entertainer that found out about this situation. He’s more activist than journalist. I think the original owner sold the collection to Ben.

      • Vendetta9076@sh.itjust.works
        14·
        2 days ago

        The original owner didn’t sell it to anyone. It was on consignment with Bricks n Minifigs. Hence the whole issue to begin with.

          • TastySoup@lemmy.world
            11·
            2 days ago

            Clarifying for the curious because it’s been a whole saga: Original owner (Brian) of the legos did consignment deal with BAM, and it was going well til new owners took over, but when it went sour with new owners Ben got involved.

            During one of their many creative attempts to resolve the matter, they decided to have Brian “sell” the legos to Ben and some of his friends (I think it was 10k worth of legos each because that was the threshold for small claims court.)

            So yea, there was a “sale” as part of the trying to recover them process, and yea, the original consignment deal with BAM is what started the whole ordeal.