I Found The $200,000 Missing Lego

A $200,000 LEGO collection went missing,

causing a lot of you to ask me to find

it. And after seeing the cops point guns

at YouTubers, people get arrested and

sued for $1.3 million, I decided enough

was enough. This looks like a case for

the internet detectives. This time in

the $10 million LEGO studio. So, I

talked to every suspect involved. What I

found shocked me.

>> [music]

>> Okay, before we can find these missing

LEGOs, let's give some background.

>> [music]

>> A massive Star Wars collection was put

on consignment at a LEGO store called

Bricks & Minifigs in Salem, Oregon.

Consignment just means the owner, Brian

Mansell, gave it to a store to sell,

[music] and he was supposed to get a cut

when it sold. The entire time he

maintained ownership of the collection.

In a social media post, estimated it to

be worth about $200,000. But then, on

November 14th, 2024, everything went

wrong. This was the night that Crystal

and Ben Gorman, the prior franchise

owners of the Salem store, got kicked

out by this guy. [music] That is Brandon

Best. He and his partner, Josh Johnson,

ran a sister store in Eugene, Oregon.

[music] And Brandon drove up that night

to kick the Gormans out. Brandon and

Josh would be taking over the franchise

in Salem. And this is the exact moment

the LEGOs go missing. As that store is

getting handed over, the question is, is

Brian's collection in it? [music]

Here's what the official Bricks &

Minifigs press release reads, quote,

"After taking over the store, we

discovered a small number of sets valued

[music] between two to $5,000 that could

be possibly related to Mr. Mansell's

collection." But there's a problem here.

There should be over 10 times that

amount in this store given their

internal records and what we know the

estimated value of this collection was.

So, if corporate's saying there was only

$2 to $5,000 in the store, something

happened to these LEGOs, but what? In

order to solve this case, let's think

about the suspects. First, who was there

that night of the handover? It's only

three people, Crystal and Ben Gorman,

the former franchise owners, and Brandon

Best, one of the new owners. These are

our three [music]

biggest suspects, but they aren't the

only ones. I want to address a few other

suspects at the very start here. First

of all, maybe this is just all the

result of, you know, plain old thieves

breaking in. What about that

possibility?

>> Hi, I am Chris. I was the [music]

previous franchise owner who signed the

collection agreement with Brian Mansell.

>> And I'm Benjamin Gorman. I am the silent

partner who's really bad at being

silent.

>> We did have a couple of break-ins at the

store. None of Brian's collections were

in the police report or stolen [music]

during those.

>> Okay, so the Gormans say emphatically it

wasn't thieves, but if that's the case,

what about the guy who was arrested I

mentioned at the beginning of this

video, Reckless Ben? This is the

YouTuber who started it all with a

documentary I tracked down the thief who

stole $200,000 of LEGO. Maybe it's the

perfect crime, make a video tracking

yourself. Now, for our theory, it's

worth noting Ben is currently facing a

RICO lawsuit by Bricks and Minifigs. He

was even targeted with a search warrant

for stolen LEGOs.

>> Included in the warrant are LEGOs.

>> The owner reported overhearing

conversations about [music]

possible stolen LEGOs.

>> And on top of that, Reckless Ben was

even accused of stealing the LEGOs by

the current franchise owner.

>> I stole the LEGOs?

>> What do you think of the theory that it

[music] was Reckless Ben he stole the

LEGOs?

>> It's absurd. We didn't even know

Reckless Ben. We had no interaction, no

relation to us, no relation to the

store. That doesn't hold any water.

>> Okay. I'm going to be honest, apologies

to the genius cops in Utah who play

different.

>> We play differently here.

>> But I I I don't believe that Reckless

Ben stole the LEGO. Mostly because he

couldn't, he just wasn't there that

night. And I don't even think he knew

about these LEGOs, but who does Ben

suspect is holding the LEGOs since he

did this whole documentary series?

>> The guy who runs the entire company,

Ammon McNeff. He personally came out to

talk to us.

>> So what's going on?

So you guys are holding some of our

LEGOs?

>> No, we're not.

>> You're not?

>> No.

>> Is that a lie?

>> No.

>> That's that's a lie. You did take the

LEGOs.

>> No.

You So we have our our attorneys have

visited but like again, so who's like

like

>> Brian Menzel.

>> Okay, and who is that?

>> He's a guy who had a bunch of He had

like $200,000 worth of LEGOs in your

store.

>> No.

Never happened.

>> My name [music] is Ammon McNeff. I am

the CEO of the Bricks & Minifigs brand.

>> So my name is Matt McNeff. I'm the COO

of Bricks & Minifigs.

>> The people you just saw are the McNeff

brothers. They agreed to speak with me

to try to clear their name. I asked

them, do they have the LEGOs?

>> What I can tell you is that we don't

have it. We've never had access to them.

>> It seems to [music] kind of go missing,

parts of it seem to go missing

on November 14th.

>> Well, and and and I guess the

>> No. [music] No. Not not at all. I'm I'm

going to say, you know, like that that

that is not accurate at all.

Because

>> So you think that the collection was in

the store at the time or elsewhere?

>> Elsewhere.

When when you look at Menzel's own words

[music]

that he reiterated to a podcast last

year, he explicitly [music] stated to

another podcaster the sets were moved

offsite for security.

>> The collection will not be stored on

site after hours for security reasons

[music] and after Sunday the sets will

be available for purchase but stored

elsewhere.

>> Now, one thing that's been a big subject

of the [music] Bricks and Minifigs kind

of story is, "Hey, there are these

off-site

locations." Can you [music] address what

that is? Is that true?

>> So, the off-site location and [music]

the the letter that they are that

corporate is referring to is the

original press release that [music] we

released when we were launching the

collection. In that press release,

because we had had uh [music] previous

break-ins, I specifically included the

location that after this weekend those

LEGOs would be sto- would be stored

[music]

stored off-site to deter any future

thefts. They were [music] briefly stored

off-site after that launch weekend while

I bought safes for the back room and

then they were moved back [music] into

the store.

>> Okay, so for most of the time the the

the sets [music] were in the store after

y'all got the safes in?

>> Yeah.

>> Exactly.

>> Okay, so Ammon McNeff suspects that a

lot of the LEGOs weren't there that

night. And then on the other hand, we

just heard from Crystal and Ben Gorman

explaining the off-site story saying

that later they no longer used those

off-site locations. But what do we

really know about the Gormans? They are

the former franchise owners after all. I

mean, shouldn't we be suspicious of

everyone? They're one of our key

suspects. They were there the night we

lost Brian's collection. They were the

creators of the consignment consignment

deal after all. And one group in

particular is pointing their finger at

them very hard. It's the McNeffs who say

they were behind on payments.

>> We started getting uh calls from the

landlord letting us know that Crystal

[music]

was uh behind on the lease payments at

the location. We had also gotten a

couple of uh notices [music] from some

of our vendor partners that bills had

not been paid by the store. And so, we

felt pretty strongly that there was

going to be

>> [music]

>> a risk of her just, you know, like

attempting to file bankruptcy, doing

some of these other types of things

which we've had franchisees do in the

past and that's

>> [music]

>> problematic. So, that's why we sent him

up there to take some video footage. So,

we need we needed to just be prepared if

if we needed to do a hostile takeover

which, you know, like can happen in

[music] franchising where a franchise

owner just, you know, kind of tries to

steal inventory and do some different

things that way.

>> Okay, so Bricks & Minifigs story is that

they were worried about the Gorman's

skipping town, so they sent Brandon Best

as a secret shopper on October 24th,

2024. This is weeks before the takeover.

Brandon takes a video of the store

condition in preparation for this

handover, but at this point Brandon does

not announce himself to Crystal Gorman.

Later though, on November 14th, once

again the same concern about the

Gorman's stealing or theft was expressed

by the McNeffs.

>> Brandon was trying to make sure that

they weren't taking things from the

store and so he was kind of trying to

make sure that she wasn't putting

things, you know, like hiding things in

the back and that he like and while he

was watching that, trying to make sure

Ben wasn't grabbing stuff from the store

and moving or doing anything along those

lines cuz he just got a weird feeling

about the whole transition.

>> She took at least one if not more than

one cartfuls [music]

of things out to her car with her coat

draped over it.

>> So, yeah. The McNeffs say, "Look, they

don't trust the Gorman's."

>> And they explained it, you know, even

further. They said, "Hey, there's some

issues in her past."

>> She apparently has a retail theft

and and [music] other criminal like

arrests on her record. That we were not

aware of.

>> When was that?

>> I don't know. This this this this has

been brought out

>> [music]

>> by by several people online now.

>> Now, look, that's a huge accusation to

bring up and so obviously I wanted to

talk to the Gorman's about it.

>> They're like, "She has a history of some

type of burglary theft."

>> Oh my god.

Wow.

>> Yeah, that's what they're saying.

>> Well, yes.

>> Well,

>> You know about this.

>> Explain.

>> Yeah, when I was 19 years old.

>> How long ago [music] is that?

>> I am 45 now.

So, that this was in 1999.

This, something that happened 25 years

ago, has no reflection and no bearing on

what happened in the last 2 years, my

management of the store, what happened

the night corporate seized the store.

>> [music]

>> It is another deflection and it

infuriates me. You're going to try to

publicly embarrass and shame me for

somebody that was manipulated by local

police departments when she was pregnant

and 19 years old.

you.

>> [laughter]

>> That's my response to that.

>> [music]

>> I am so sorry. You're going to have to

blur and cut a lot of this, but that

pisses me off. I own what I have done. I

own the mistakes that I have made.

You cannot

intimidate [music]

and bully me into backing down when I

know that legally and morally I am in

the right and I have the evidence to

back it up.

>> Wow, this is getting

kind of nasty and personal at this point

and I just wanted to give people kind of

their side, but at every turn, I hope

you understand, I'm getting

contradictory stories. Down to if the

McNeffs knew about her history in the

first place.

>> Like they're bringing up something

>> [music]

>> that I told them about.

>> Wait, wait, wait, you told them?

>> Told them. They asked me.

>> They said they had no idea. They said,

"If if we knew, we would have never

hired her."

>> Cuz we would not have hired her had we

known this. [music]

>> I told them I had a record from when I

was 18 that was a family issue [music]

that and didn't go into all of the

details, but they were like, "That's so

long ago. We're going to hire you based

on who you are now.

>> Okay, I'm just going to leave it there.

You guys can make [music] up your own

mind. My point is one side says up, the

other says down, and it gets to the

point both sides start hinting that they

have photographic proof from the [music]

night of November 14th that proves the

other side is lying. So, I'm like,

"Look, at this point let's stop talking.

Show me the Legos." Where I was told we

are 100% have [music] possession of

photos that prove that the Gormans are

lying. And then you guys are telling me

we 100% have possession of photos

that prove

this side's lying. Who's going to drop

the photos first? I mean, I feel like

someone just has to Somebody's right

here. And after a lot of convincing,

both sides agreed to show me the photos,

[music] corporate and the Gormans. In

fact, I scheduled the calls to do this

an hour apart from each other. But let's

remember their positions for a second.

The Gormans say whatever was left unsold

of Brian's collection that was in that

store spreadsheet was in Salem store the

night of November 14th. Then you have

corporate side. They say whatever was

left that night was maybe two to five

thousand dollars of Legos. The rest was

either stolen by thieves, the [music]

Gormans, or held off site. It was not in

that store. And now both sides, there's

a lot to lose here, right? You've got

the Gormans who basically have been

insinuated to have been stealing. And

for Josh and Brandon, too, the new

franchise owners, there's a lot on the

line. I reached out to Josh and he told

me, "I think her pictures would only

show a few sets and mini figs." I

replied, "So, if I can prove that the

Lego sets were in the store, that will

prove Brandon was lying." Josh replies,

"If it shows something different, then

yes, I will eat my words." So, the

stakes have been established. And let's

see the evidence starting with Matt

McNeff. First, he showed me the video

October 24th, 2024 for a baseline of how

the store looked.

>> So, this is the Salem Kaiser location.

Is that correct?

>> Salem Kaiser location, yes.

>> So, is it fair to say I'm seeing quite a

few Legos [music] here? I mean, I'm

seeing a store of LEGOs. You'd agree.

>> There's there's a good amount of LEGO on

hand. Um

this this isn't what I would say is a

well-stocked Bricks & Minifigs,

but it's not um

it's not terrible. It's it's [music] I

would say a little below average as far

as overall stock. So, now let's go to

November 14th. Can you still see my

screen?

>> [music]

>> Yes, sir.

>> Okay.

So, November 14th,

uh when Brandon was in there helping to

>> is the day. This is like the big day.

>> This is the day.

>> Hold on. I got to prepare myself

emotionally for this. This is a big

deal. This is a big This is This is

D-Day. This is the big moment. This is

Brandon takes over the store. This is We

don't know where the LEGOs are after

this moment.

>> We don't know where the LEGOs are after

this moment. And I want to point out

again that we we've had this for a

while.

We haven't put you This is the first

time we've shown this publicly. We've

been waiting for our attorneys to give

us the approval to say, "Hey, this is

okay now to share in this capacity."

[music] So,

uh this will will go through these

pictures.

This is what Josh saw when or not Josh

saw, Brandon saw. Uh he took pictures of

everything in the store, all the

inventory in the store.

This is what the shelves looked like

compared to what you just saw a moment

ago.

>> Okay, so I'm seeing a lot less, just

[music] to state the obvious. Go back a

little bit.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm seeing like way less.

>> So, yeah, the pictures I was being shown

on November 14th, those shelves looked

emptier than they did on the day of

October 24th. But to be fair to the

Gormans, they addressed the empty

shelves themselves.

>> As we get to the very end of this video

in particular, right here, you'll see

that empty space right here. So, this is

the retired [music] and certified set

section that we have to keep separate

from the new inbox current sets [music]

being sold by LEGO. All those empty

spaces up there were the sets that we

had on display during the day [music]

from Brian's collection that every night

when the store closed we pulled off and

put back into the safe and then put back

out in the morning.

>> So when they say see there's empty space

on the shelves, yeah, cuz we put them in

safe to keep them safe.

>> we have giant windows.

>> Yeah, it's an explanation that kind of

makes sense given the history of

burglary. Now, of course, this is

something I had to ask the McNeffs

about. Is this a case [music]

of did y'all see Star Wars sets in the

back? Did y'all not see the Star Wars

sets in the back? [music]

Did he take I'm not in the back but the

specifically in a safe like there were a

bunch of Star Wars sets in a safe. Did

Brandon see those?

Uh has there been talk of those?

Do you know what I'm talking about?

>> Yeah.

My understanding is that he took

pictures of everything and all those

photos I showed you of the Star Wars

were all the photos or were were all was

literally all the Star Wars inventory in

the store.

>> Yeah, the McNeffs say all of the photos

should be with Brandon of all the Star

Wars items. And to be fair to them, they

showed me a lot more pictures and even

showed me a spreadsheet of all the Star

Wars sets in the store the night Brandon

took it over and it valued to about like

five to ten thousand dollars or so. But

then I had to ask. Oh sorry, here's

another kind of set.

Okay.

Do you think y'all have all of these?

>> Very likely.

>> Okay.

>> Again, I'd be surprised if we didn't.

>> But then I couldn't help myself. I

started to bring up some of Crystal's

photos to see if they matched up.

Have you seen this [music] before?

>> Uh not that I recall.

>> Do you Do you see that?

>> Yep.

>> So do you see it's in like some kind of

like a safe thing? I don't know if

[music] you can see the sides there.

>> Looks like a bookshelf to me but sure.

>> Okay, sure. Yeah, yeah. So I think the

important [music] thing is making sure

that all of these are in the inventory

for Mansell.

>> Sure.

Sure, that's cool.

>> 75041 [music]

>> Yep.

The vulture droid.

>> 75169 [music]

>> 169 I'm not seeing, so there may be

Okay, so there's one that is not on our

list.

>> Let's try this.

10240 [music]

>> Okay. Nope, not seeing that one either.

>> What about 9

493

>> Three, I don't see that one either. So,

it maybe those were locked at the time

and Brandon did not get those pictures.

>> All right, that's kind of a problem

because the Gormans had over 200 photos

of this store. I definitely knew looking

at these photos, there's a lot more

LEGOs in the Gormans photos by quite a

lot that Brandon's photos just didn't

show, but corporate didn't really see it

that way.

>> But

still in in the grand scheme of things,

we're not talking again 10 times the

amount of of sets here.

>> I don't know. I haven't shown all the

the photos [music] yet. I don't know

exactly how much.

>> If there's a calculable figure that we

can look at and say, "Great, this is

what was there."

I promise you, it's not $100,000 worth

of of LEGO.

And so, where's the rest of it?

You got me.

I don't know.

>> Maybe I'm a little too in my head about

this this U-Haul story. You don't think

it could have been

some U-Haul thing? There's no way.

>> Oh, yeah, have we Have we talked about

the U-Haul yet? We got to We got to talk

about the U-Haul for a second. This is

another one of those things that was

like really disputed between the two

parties was this U-Haul that supposedly

was driven up to the store the night of

the takeover.

>> So, when Brandon came to the store that

night, uh he was driving a U-Haul truck.

>> Now, in typical fashion, this was

immediately disputed.

>> Brandon showed up to to the Salem store

in a rental car. Uh when when he came to

to get the keys from Crystal, he was

there in a rental car, not in a U-Haul.

>> It wasn't until after he told me he was

taking the keys and locking me out that

I really kind of paid attention to the

fact that he had a large, not the small,

the the large U-Haul truck.

>> So, yeah, I just kept hearing about this

U-Haul truck. Now, why is it

significant, U-Haul or not? Well, one, a

U-Haul truck can fit a lot of LEGOs, but

the big reason it mattered to me was

because I was actually called by an

ex-employee

of the Bricks and Minifigs store in

Eugene, Oregon. Remember, that's the one

that Brandon and Josh own, and he told

me something very interesting.

>> I was a former employee. Started 2024.

I just wanted to let you

all know that

manager Brian, he sold the store to

Brandon and asked

>> [music]

>> Josh.

>> What store was this? Bricks and Minifigs

where?

>> Eugene.

>> Okay.

Now, what did you see that made you want

to talk to me?

>> Well, I saw

the Bricks and Banter's YouTube video

about the Salem store closing down

because of them.

I was talking to my employee co-workers

about the situation about Salem.

And we were told through other employees

that it was just a

a bad area to work in. It was like crime

ridden, if you will. It was going

around.

But after seeing the video of Bricks and

Banter,

it exposed them,

and it makes a lot more sense with what

they did with

Brandon and Josh. They stole Crystal's

stolen LEGO sets and bolted out of the

country.

>> Who says that?

>> Brandon Brandon Best told us.

When he was done dropping off all the

LEGO sets to us that night, he used like

a bunch of used LEGO sets.

That stuff was like Saran wrapped. They

had Star Wars City,

and just a lot of stuff. It was like a

medium-size U-Haul truck.

>> Wait, wait, they brought a U-Haul truck?

>> Yeah, from Salem to Eugene.

>> And to Eugene,

and it had a bunch of Star Wars sets on

it?

>> Yeah, Star Wars sets, like everything.

Even a bunch of used stuff, too.

>> Wait, when when and [music] and and and

was this when they took over the store

from Crystal?

>> I believe so, yes. Yes, because he said

that Crystal stole Legos and left the

country.

>> While he has a U-Haul of Legos?

>> Yeah.

>> Interesting. [music]

Weird.

>> And so, then he said, "We're just going

to hold on to this stuff until until

corporate tells us where we have to

distribute it."

And I'm like, "Oh,

well, that makes more sense if they can

take it cuz they're kind of struggling

with, you know, the product to put on

the shelves."

>> Oh my gosh. Uh we've really got to find

out. Was there a U-Haul that night or

not? Because everybody's disagreeing

about it. This Eugene Oregon guy says,

"Oh, yeah, a U-Haul showed up with Star

Wars sets in it." Brandon was talking

about the Salem store. You've got Matt

McKneff saying there was no U-Haul

there, it was a rental car. You've got

Crystal saying, "Yeah, I thought it was

really weird, there was a U-Haul truck

there." So, I told the McKneffs, you

know,

I really got to find out what the truth

is here. If you know anything about it,

let me know, cuz that's just something

[music] I heard.

>> I do, and it has nothing to do with with

the Salem store. Um well, at least not

at the not the Salem store in the way

that it is there. Uh Brandon showed up

to to the Salem store in a rental car

when when he came to to get the keys

from Crystal. He was there in a rental

car, not in a U-Haul.

>> So, when when there was the handoff,

there wasn't a U-Haul, it was a rental

car.

>> Correct. He was there in a rental car.

>> Got it.

>> Yeah.

>> Um

Okay.

>> And I think any any of the

like if you were to look at the the

footage, uh

>> [music]

>> the ring cameras, all that stuff, you

you won't see a U-Haul sitting anywhere

in the the parking lot.

>> So, after in hearing all of this, I

realized, "Look, I just got to find the

evidence." So, I start [music] sifting

through these photos I have, right? I

realize I have a parking lot photo. I

check it. No U-Haul, just a red truck

out there. I check another photo where

you could see the window, but the

problem is it's night outside, so you

can't see. And so, I'm looking at

everything I can, [music] and there's

just nothing, you know? And I have this

alternate angle. I'm looking at that.

And then,

wait a minute.

Zoom in on that photo. Bring up the

brightness of this photo a little bit,

and

my gosh, there's a U-Haul in the parking

lot right outside of the store the night

of November 14th, 2024. This is

something that Matt said he had seen

footage of, and it couldn't be true.

>> And again, I I believe I have seen

footage from that night that shows

clearly out in the parking lot, and

there's no U-Haul.

>> After seeing this, I said, "I really

have to make a call." And that's when

the story changed. So, last night, I

talked [music] with Matt McNeff. I

brought up this question of the U-Haul.

He told me emphatically there was no

U-Haul. [music] Y'all came to me this

morning. You said, "Hey, we looked into

it. There actually was a U-Haul there

that night. Can you clear up what that's

about?"

>> So, so So, there's there's actually two

different things that are going on here,

just to help you [music] understand. Um

so, and and I don't know if

uh

if [music] you want this particularly

not on the record, but we do know of of

a disgruntled [music] former employee

um that worked at another location

that back on the 24th of October

>> [music]

>> there was a U-Haul that went to a

storage unit in Salem

for a another previous uh franchisee,

you know, like for for a different

situation that we had just [music]

um you know, gone through some things,

and he he had a previously, you know,

like, "Hey, I I have some some inventory

that [music] I didn't turn over that I

was supposed to. It's at this storage

location. Uh can you know, you guys can

come pick it up. And so, Brandon was

sent on that day

to pick up with a U-Haul [music]

uh, inventory that then he moved down,

but that was October 24th.

>> [music]

>> So, when we're talking about this

ex-employee, you're saying they are

conflating the October 24th event of the

U-Haul [music] coming up to Eugene with

Star Wars Legos with

some time after November 14th, the store

takeover. Is that correct? Am I

understanding that?

>> Yes.

>> So, this is now kind of a strange story.

Corporate is saying there was a U-Haul

at the Eugene store dropping off Lego,

but that was from a different night,

different collection. The CEO says

Brandon showed up to Salem on October

24th for his secret shopper job with

Crystal, and separately he also was

getting a different collection of Legos

that also included Star Wars, and that's

what he brought to the Eugene store, and

the former employee is remembering.

Then, weeks later, on November 14th,

Brandon supposedly shows up again with a

U-Haul, but the reason isn't for hauling

Legos.

>> Brandon flew in to Eugene

um, that night. Uh, sorry, at midnight.

So, on the on the

flew from Utah on the 13th, but landed

in Oregon on uh, you know, like midnight

of of the 14th.

Um, went and got a rental truck, um, and

then went and stayed at a at a trailer

that had previously been moved up there

in anticipation, uh, like meaning of

like a a camper trailer, in anticipation

of the the potential hostile takeover

previously.

>> Is that why he had a U-Haul? Is that the

reason he had a U-Haul was for this

camper, or what's going on with the

>> Yes. So, so, so then what happens is he

takes [music] his his uh, rental vehicle

truck, and he tries to connect the the

trailer

uh, the camping trailer to that truck

and and it's not rated for that

particular weight. And he realized, "Oh

crap." He called around and found that

that U-Haul uh

had a rating for, you know, like one of

their box trucks. And so, he grabbed

that, went and got it at 10:00 a.m. on

the 14th.

And at uh and so, he then went and

hooked that trailer up

um

>> [music]

>> to the camping trailer to a U-Haul,

drove that trailer down to uh another

location where he could set up the

camping trailer in Salem, uh dropped off

the camper trailer, and then he arrived

in a U-Haul to the Salem store.

And then um

went in, said hi to Crystal,

>> [music]

>> and then as she was leaving, the door

shuts, and uh so, he he locks it, calls

the locksmith, takes him a while to to

finish up the um the changing of the

locks. Brandon at this point is is

pretty exhausted, so um and he has an

hour drive back to Eugene to drop off

the uh the the rental truck. So, he

drops it off at, you know, midnight or

1:00, something like that, grabs the

rental truck, and then heads back up to

>> [music]

>> uh the camper trailer in Salem,

and then, you know, like is probably

gets in at around 2:00 or 3:00 in the

morning,

>> [music]

>> spends a couple of, you know, gets

that's a little bit of sleep before he

has to head back to the store at 9:00

a.m. before the other employees get

there. The timeline that that is trying

to be portrayed [music] just makes

absolutely zero sense. Okay, so I asked,

obviously, for documentation of all of

this from Brandon. And here's what I

got. First, the U-Haul contract on

November 14th. This checks out what we

already know. Then, I got sent a photo,

the last one Brandon [music] took in the

Salem store dated 9:44 p.m. where you

can see what looks like the inside of a

birdcage that the Gormans had. And

lastly, I was sent a photo Brandon took

of the mileage in the U-Haul. As he

dropped it back off at the rental place

on November 15th, 12:41 a.m. Now, the

time gap there is about 3 hours between

the last photo in Salem to dropping the

U-Haul off, which is a bit of a problem

for our timeline.

>> Yeah, it took like 4 hours. I mean, I

worked till like 11:00 and I'm like, all

right,

I got to get up early tomorrow for my

other

>> You moved 4 hours of LEGOs out of this

truck.

>> [music]

>> Yeah.

>> All right. So, as weird as this U-Haul

thing is, the timeline just doesn't fit,

to be honest. If it took 4 hours to

unload, you can't also drive to another

city, load, and unload, and drop off the

U-Haul in that time. But still, even if

this is true, it's pretty weird, and

it's one of the most bizarre stories

I've ever heard to have a U-Haul thing

back-to-back. One of the times you're

picking up LEGOs, the other time you're

not, you're taking a camper.

Nevertheless, without more proof, we

kind of have to move on to another

theory of how to find these missing

LEGO. This time, let's take the

photographs that we have and reconstruct

what was in the night on November 14th.

Remember, that's the moment we lost the

LEGO. And this time, we're going to

combine it with two more things. First,

from corporate, I got the point of sale

records from the Salem store from 2023

to 2024. And secondly, from Crystal

Gorman, I got her internal records of

Brian's inventory of what was sold or

not in order to pay him and keep track

of prices. Now, before we piece things

together, I need to address something.

At the beginning of this story, you saw

the social post saying this collection

was worth $200,000. That's what everyone

knows this story as,

>> [music]

>> the $200,000 LEGO collection. But sadly,

that post was entirely wrong. In Crystal

Gorman's inventory, which has a high and

low estimate value of these various LEGO

items, the real estimated value is about

$107,000.

They give high estimates and low

estimates, but that's right there in the

middle, and for simplicity, I'll just be

using averages and estimates here, but

understand that, you know, these numbers

are not firm, given that they're unsold

LEGOs. It's just rough possibilities,

but the point is it's worth nowhere near

$200,000.

And Rebrickable the one who made the

original video covering this said that

surprised him.

>> Yeah, I thought I mean this entire time

literally every single person's been

telling me

there were $200,000. Like that's how

much like

you could sell all these sets for.

>> My original assessment of about $200,000

was going up to his father's house and

looking in three different rooms with

all the sets. It was before I'd actually

gone through and had set numbers and

done an actual like evaluation. I looked

at it and went based on as things

progressed and as I start to started to

delve more into the actual inventory and

evaluating it that number changed. But

>> [music]

>> we put out the press release well in

advance of the event itself so that

press release went out before I had

those full numbers. So we went this is a

nice even number that will grab

attention and bring people into the

store. So we went with that.

>> And you think

>> Yeah.

>> I mean to believe that is accurate at

the high end. Like it was one of those

things where when she was looking

through and going well, it says this and

it says this like

you don't think even at the high end?

>> You haven't actually seen the

spreadsheet. [music]

>> No, I haven't.

>> You might want to cut that part out cuz

he hasn't actually seen the inventory

sheet.

>> The spreadsheet the spreadsheet says

[music]

about for between 85,000 to 120

something [music] thousand

>> Yeah.

>> point about 107 or something like that.

Of what was inventory. Does that sound

right to you?

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. So this has been a really big

point of misinformation to clear up

because if we're ever going to find the

missing Lego, we need to start with the

right number, the right value. It's

about $107,000.

Now between 2023 and 2024 the Gormans

record sales of about $24,000

of Brian's collection [music]

in their inventory tracking list. And of

those sales, Ryan was entitled to about

65%

of it. He was paid $17,000,

which roughly tracks with that. Which

means on November 14th, the big night,

the remaining amount of Brian's

collection that should have been in

there is about $82,000.

Now, it doesn't take a genius to realize

this is a very different number than

corporate provided, who found only $2 to

$5,000 of it linked to Brian. And later

they said they only found 13 to 15,000

in total LEGO Star Wars.

>> So, you're talking

maybe 11 to 15,000 total Star Wars. And

I That's That's all Star Wars inventory

in the whole store.

>> So, that's corporate's side of the

story, but I didn't want to take their

word for it. So, I went through

Crystal's photos myself, which she

shared with me, and hired people to go

through and hand tag the Star Wars LEGOs

that were in [music] these photos. We

looked through over 200 plus photos,

multiple videos, and matched what we saw

with Brian's collection. In the end, I

ended up with about $21,000

of LEGOs matching Brian's collection

that can be proven to be in the store on

the night of November 14th. Now, to

state the obvious, that's about three to

five times what corporate estimated, at

least on their press release. Now, yes,

there are inherent errors in these

estimates. Maybe we picked up some LEGO

that matched Brian's collection, but

wasn't Brian's. But, even though this is

a bigger number than corporate said, I

have to admit, even with pretty generous

assumptions being made, there's still a

huge gap of about $61,000 here that I

just couldn't find. But, then I learned

Brian had made a special side deal with

M&R Productions, who had recently

purchased some LEGOs from him. And this

is where it starts to get messy. So,

these are the pictures that M&R

Productions sent me looking at the LEGO

that Brian sold him. This was stuff

reportedly in storage and it's

interesting because of an early

inventory list which had a column called

location that Crystal used and it listed

a lot of the Star Wars items as being

located in what they called storage. Now

previously I was told that all of the

stuff in storage was put back in the

store, [music] but there's a bunch

that's on this list that I can't find in

the store that seem to appear in these

pictures.

>> [music]

>> Now I've been assured by the way that

most of these LEGOs were not part of the

inventory spreadsheet. They were never

given to Bricks and Minifigs. This is a

separate part of the collection, but I

did a check and 100% of the items that

match the Brian collection inventory

just so happen to be listed with a

location of storage. So this starts to

make things incredibly fuzzy and I'm

inclined to believe that a lot of these

are part of that same inventory list.

Now if we take that value of the side

deal, that's about 10 to $20,000 that's

not actually missing. Now is at this

point I started looking more at the

point of sales records. I realized maybe

we could find some of this missing LEGO

there too. [music]

So this is from the Salem internal store

records. Like I guess this is what is

entered [music] when someone does a sale

and it's everything from September 2023

to November 2024 of Star Wars [music]

anything. And by the way, before we

continue, yes, this was all a lot of

work. If you want to, please support us

on Patreon. That's how this show gets

made. But anyways, according to those

records, about $51,000

in sales [music]

went through during this time period in

a way that matched Brian Mansell's

collection.

>> [music]

>> Now that really worried me because

Crystal's inventory list showed only

24,000 in sales for Brian [music]

and Brian was only paid for that amount.

But suddenly I remembered back to a time

when I spoke to Crystal and I asked how

much was sold prior to the takeover,

which is something similar from what you

told me, Crystal. You told me, "Hey, it

was about 50-something thousand."

[music]

>> Yeah.

>> But, Brian was only paid 17,000.

>> Okay.

>> And it should have been about double

that and I'm [music] just trying to make

sense of that given that everyone's

accusing each other of theft right now.

You understand?

>> I mean, without

Again, without seeing any of those any

of those [music] records, without seeing

those individual tickets, I can't answer

that any better.

>> Okay. This is kind of a problem. The

math ain't mathing here. 65 to 70% of

50,000 is almost double what we believe

Brian was paid. And digging into the

details, it turns out a lot of these

sales come from what Crystal's

spreadsheet actually categorizes as

layaways, meaning they were marked as

having been sold, but layaways are when

someone puts a down payment on an item

and later pays it off. But, the problem

was there were a lot of these worth

about $20,000

in layaway. And that felt a little

strange to me. And because of that, I

asked Josh Johnson, the incoming owner,

and he responded, quote, "There were two

to three items on layaway when they took

over."

So, on the list of that on the inventory

list, [music]

do you know do you know about how many

layaways there were?

>> gone through and done a count, but I

know it was

vastly more than two to three.

>> [music]

>> It's about 98.

>> That that makes sense.

>> So, there were about 15,000 to 25,000

[music]

dollars worth of sets on layaway.

>> Okay.

>> That's just the part that's surprising.

That's the part that I can't get my head

around. I I go I go, "How could You

know, let me let let me just be really

honest.

I don't believe there was that much

layaway. I don't know I don't I don't

know how that's possible. How could

there be that much layaway? I I don't

know. It's It's like It's like It's like

[music] I don't believe cuz I was

talking to some people about Bricks and

Minifigs. They go, "Yeah, there's some

layaway. There's not that much layaway."

I talked to people who were neutral,

kind of

on corporate side, but also people who

were just normal Bricks and Minifigs

people. They say there's not that much

not that much [music] layaway. Help me

understand why there's $20,000 worth of

layaway here.

>> Oh, yeah, that's absolutely if you talk

to other Bricks and Minifigs locations,

layaway is extremely rare. I think

outside of the the Brian's collection, I

don't know

>> Okay, good. I'm not crazy here. So,

there Why was there so much layaway

there?

>> No. No. No. No. Absolutely not. Outside

of Brian's collection, I think at the at

the time we maybe had two used sets on

layaway outside of his collection. It

was not a common thing traditionally.

Um I don't know that we'd ever done

layaway before the collection came in.

With Brian's collection, it was a little

bit different cuz [music] so much of

this collection were one new in box, all

in one place,

reasonably priced, and [music] a lot of

the harder-to-find

items. And so, customers would come in

and put

I'm going to guess probably [music] half

of those layaway items were not were not

going to be sold to the person who took

them on layaway [music]

cuz we had several that would put them

on layaway and then change their mind.

>> [music]

>> So, this was something like, you know,

somebody would come in and want 10

different sets, but only be able to buy

one.

>> [music]

>> Can I put the rest of those on layaway

so you don't sell them? I'll pay

10 bucks to put [music]

these sets on layaway. Traditionally

with layaway, we would ask for 10% down.

They'd have 30 days to make their next

payment or we'd refund the layaway

amount and then put it back on the shelf

on the shelf. [music]

Because this collection was the

collection it was, and I wanted to give

these people the opportunity to

Sorry, dogs. Um to get these sets, we

were a lot more generous with how long

and the amount of payments that people

could make towards the layaway. [music]

So, a lot of these we had several of

them. I think one of the Ewok villages

we put on layaway four different times.

[music]

And then it came off of layaway and back

on layaway and then off and then sold.

[music]

Um so, a lot of these would have gone on

and off of layaway and then back out

[music] on the shelf just depending on

the person who was putting it on

layaway. That was

completely unique to this collection.

>> So, look, I'll be honest. I don't I

don't trust Josh Johnson, but something

is weird here. So, a lot of these are

See, like look at this. Like so, [music]

like it says POS final sale price,

but it's listed as a layaway, but it's

but it's sold for $5.99.

>> Yeah.

>> Cuz it matches it matches with the store

sale price.

>> Okay.

>> So, were they on layaway? Were they

accidentally marked layaway on the

spreadsheet? [music] What's going on

there?

>> I mean, without seeing the actual sales

ticket and seeing what else like [music]

what items were sold together, what else

was sold with it, I can't actually see

the sales ticket. We had [music] several

layaway items in which customers were

putting multiple things on layaway,

paying for most of one item, and then or

they were buying, you know, eight

different things together,

and then putting all of them on layaway

and making payments on multiple items at

the same time.

Um our Ewok village was one of those

cases. Uh at some point he had I think

like eight or nine different [music]

items on layaway. Um so, they'd come in

and make a payment for a

>> [music]

>> a a bulk payment, you know, I've got 800

things on layaway.

>> [music]

>> I'm going to make $100 on my payment. Um

one customer in particular would do that

and then when he'd gotten up high enough

to pay for one set, [music] we'd pull

that set out, mark it as sold. So,

without seeing the actual tickets and my

layaway records, I can't I I cannot

answer a question any clearer than that.

>> But I even found more than that in this

POS data. I also found about $10,000 in

sales that match Brian's collection that

were not marked as sold under this

inventory spreadsheet.

>> Some of our things that were not found

>> Okay.

>> were explained by the POS system because

they were found in the POS system as

being sold. So, like they weren't marked

on the spreadsheet, [music] but they

were marked as sold via the POS system.

And this is about $10,000 worth of LEGO

that basically were matched

>> Huh.

See, and I don't know. I anything take

anything happening from [music]

Let's see.

From

Sorry, I'm trying to do math here. I

don't know without being able to see all

of the records.

There is a possibility that the the

>> [music]

>> consignments were ended when I wasn't at

work and I just didn't go through

>> [music]

>> and pull them up. They didn't get put in

the consignment ticket. I hadn't gone

through that those those consignments

[music]

in a couple of months. I hadn't gone

through the inventory in the back room

in a couple of months. So, there it is

entirely there were things that were

sales that were finished that I never

clocked as being finished.

I don't know that without going through

and actually seeing it.

>> But you're saying it's possible stuff

was sold, not updated on this inventory

list.

>> It's entirely possible that stuff did

not get updated on my spreadsheet. I'm

not I'm not going to sit here and claim

it's not possible. It's possible I

missed things.

>> So, where does this leave us? I know

some people are jumping to conclusions

here, but I must remind you that on the

night of November 14th, [music] 2024,

Crystal Gorman was concerned about Brian

getting paid or not getting paid.

>> He has not been paid his percentage yet.

And if I don't have my tickets, I won't

know how much I need to pay.

>> Okay.

So,

>> [music]

>> so Crystal ultimately knows that that's

that's a business thing and not that So,

the U-Haul is correct.

Okay.

>> [music]

>> And because he's taking on the business,

he takes on all that kind of stuff.

>> So, obviously, one could see that and

say [music] she was intending to

reconcile with Brian. Maybe she hadn't

gotten around to it. And of course,

corporate will probably take a more

cynical view of what she's doing by

printing these receipts. But the point

is, regardless [music]

of whose side you're on, I think we can

all agree there's a lot of weird stuff

here on all sides, abnormal [music]

stuff. Sure. Maybe you can chalk some of

this up to bad record keeping between

the U-Haul, the layaways, the $20,000 in

LEGO sets that corporate called $2,000

that was there that night, the off-book

deals. But even if we can't like fully

know 100%, you know, what these weird

things were about, I think they tell a

story of what actually happened to

Brian's collection. In a way, multiple

people, I think, are kind of right, kind

of wrong. The Gormans were correct that

more of that collection was there that

night of the takeover than previously

thought. But corporate also alleged that

some of it was off-site, and that

appears to be partly true. Although some

of that is disputed, and it looks like,

you know, way more of the collection was

sold and layawayed than Brian [music]

was paid for. But all in all, there's a

lot less missing than many people think,

especially if your starting number is

$200,000.

I estimated, and I must emphasize,

estimated with bad records, that there's

only about $10,000 in LEGO that isn't

explained by one of these sources.

This isn't to say Brian's been fully

compensated. Much of this Brian wasn't

paid for that I know of. So, I estimate

he's still out about 50 to 83,000

dollars for LEGO he wasn't compensated

for. And I think honestly that's

something that Bricks & Minifigs

obviously should handle and make right.

Regardless of what a franchisee does,

the new one, the old one, the company

behind it must stand behind their

product, their service, and I can't

imagine a better example of a company

doing the opposite. Unfortunately,

Bricks & Minifigs has chosen to deflect

and dodge responsibility at most

opportunities and created a really awful

customer experience that has snowballed

into this crazy series of events. But,

instead of it taking accountability for

that, they've taken an aggressive legal

strategy which I told them personally

was a horrible idea. As of writing this,

Brian Mansell is being sued for 1.3

million as part of a legal campaign

against him and Rebrickable and any of

the associates. Remember, Brian is the

same guy who lost all these LEGOs at

Bricks & Minifigs store. And I told the

CEO and COO that's ridiculous and they

should drop [music] this. Look, mistakes

have been made by plenty of people here,

but there's a lot more people who have

inflicted self-owns, the likes of which

we've rarely seen. By just choosing the

worst possible path at every fork in the

road, no pun intended. But, the best

path to making things right, in my view,

is by just making Brian whole and moving

on. Drop the aggressive legal strategy.

You are a LEGO store at the end of the

day. You are supposed to be about fun,

not about a rerun of suits. But anyways,

that's my investigation. Those are my

closing thoughts, and I knew I wanted to

approach everyone involved in this whole

story with my results and see what they

thought to close things out. Does all

that make sense to you? Cuz I'm I'm

showing everyone in this story and

saying, "Hey,

are any of these numbers blowing your

mind or is any of this crazy to you?"

>> No, it's not crazy. But what's crazy

again like all the photo evidence that

both sides have

points to there being

>> [music]

>> sure $20,000 worth of LEGO in this of

Star Wars LEGO in the store that night.

Right? I don't know, man. I'm just

[music] like

can people understand

maybe why there was some

>> [music]

>> confusion and why there was some

hesitation when somebody comes in and

says, "Hey,

you owe me $60,000 worth of of product

and LEGO." And we go, "We don't even

know who you are."

Like yeah, Crystal mentioned something

about consignment [music] on her way out

the door.

And we go, "Sure, we'll get that figured

out." But then the guy just walks in and

and demands $60,000 worth of LEGO?

Like

like what am I supposed to do other than

say, "Cool, show me Can Can you show me

the proof?"

>> The problem is there's so much of a

dispute on the timeline [music] and this

is what's going to make this story so

hard to tell is like they say you guys

are unreasonable. They tried they tried

and eventually they gave up, but they

said [music] they say they tried and

they were basically met with like

unreasonable requests, [music] things

like that. So

>> Ver- verification? Documentation? Is

that unreasonable do you think?

>> Uh well, I think they would say they

provided the documentation and you guys

say [music] you need more documentation.

So I mean that's the kind that's kind of

the

>> Right. A a spread like I understand a

spreadsheet and a contract are are a

good start.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, but but we never got that. That

was never sent to us at corporate by the

way.

>> [music]

>> Y'all don't have the Y'all do have the

spreadsheet though, yeah? Y'all have the

spreadsheet.

>> That that was shared online, but like

but months after we asked for it.

>> It [music] says it's I I'm just I'm so

confused. It says I I'm I'm I'm on the

file right now. It says storage used

owned by BAM Franchising Inc. Owner

salem.or o r bricksandminifigs.com.

>> [music]

>> What what are you looking at?

>> Says owner salem.or

o r at bricksandminifigs.com. That's you

guys.

>> [music]

>> Says owned by BAM Franchising Inc.

Says created September 6th, 2024.

[music]

When I look at it,

this is the

the man cell list, I believe.

So this this would have been created

under like so so we

>> [music]

>> we have the

um we only

>> definitely have this. Y'all [music] have

access to this.

>> Well, I

I had no idea. Like so if this is the

first that anybody has shown me

>> [clears throat]

>> that

that a spreadsheet was created using

like bricksandminifigs Salem like and

all of this stuff was archived. [music]

This this this is the first I've seen

that this spreadsheet was created by

Crystal.

>> [music]

>> And we don't know how accurate it is,

how up up to date it was. We don't know

a lot of those types of things and and

understand I appreciate you sharing this

with us because we had no idea. Again,

you don't know what you don't know and

you [music] don't you can't like we

don't know everything and we don't go

you know like looking in every nook and

cranny everywhere. You know like we just

don't know some of those things. So if

that's there, we can now have our team

go look for that.

>> When it comes right down to it, they're

going to have to make a judgment call

and say [music] who's telling the truth?

The people who were taking all the

pictures and say and we couldn't take

pictures of everything the night of, but

we're being honest consistently and the

people who are saying there was 5,000

bucks there. Really? Like that makes no

sense. We've got the evidence and yes,

there's a discrepancy. We acknowledge we

did not take pictures of everything,

but

does that mean that the discrepancy is

oh and therefore these missing you know

you know percentage whatever that would

be, 5% is some magical other place.

>> If I

>> Or it was sitting there in the store and

we didn't get pictures of it.

>> If I I mean, if I messed up on my

explanation. If I messed up on my record

keeping,

I will take accountability for that.

It's possible if my staff

didn't draw attention that consignments

had [music] had left out, so I'd move

them to the thing. Any of that, I will

take accountability to that. I am more

than willing to do that.

I need BAM [music] to show me those

tickets.

>> As they promised to do.

>> I will sit down with Brian and talk this

over and figure out what we missed and

where it was missed and [music] how it

was missed and make that right with him.

>> I mean, that's new information no one's

ever found out, so that's like awesome.

They're going to lose hundreds of

millions of dollars because

of their own wrongdoing. They're

literally going to destroy their entire

company [music] because they're this

stubborn over maybe $20,000 worth of

LEGO. Sure, I'll be keeping you in the

loop with what I, you know,

>> Nice. So, I'm excited. This was a good

work. I My other final thoughts is,

dude, you solved it, dude. That's

awesome.

>> 7 November 2014

7 November 2014

4 November