Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was sealed sets, still NIB, not individual pieces. No one would bother selling $200k of loose bricks on consignment.
Let me rephrase: “blue Lego set”
*grey, since it was Star Wars
Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
461–470 of 704 posts
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#462Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Child abuse is not an official sanctioned thing in Mormonism. The purpose of a system is what it does.
Are children more abused by Mormons? I find it highly unlikely just considering on average they are wealthier than other religious groups and poverty and child abuse are highly correlated
It's more like a combination of factors that make child abuse more prevalent: lack of access to the outside world ("we are in the world but not of the world"), a strict patriarchal hierarchy in the home that puts children at the bottom, endorsement by the church of physical punishments, etc.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you want a (less entertaining but very interesting) legal analysis of the various legal tricks Ben used in this video Lawful Masses with Leonard French has just released this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ktgvoH4Mc Some of the people in this thread making very definitive claims about consignments contracts without considering this specific jurisdictions should watch it... the victims here could have h…
+1: I'm so glad I happened to watch Mr. French's video first.
It's just as depressing as the other one, it shows that BAM knows exactly how to abuse the law to get away with stealing.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
And if you want a (less entertaining but very interesting) legal analysis of the various legal tricks Ben used in this video Lawful Masses with Leonard French has just released this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ktgvoH4Mc Some of the people in this thread making very definitive claims about consignments contracts without considering this specific jurisdictions should watch it... the victims here could have h…
+1: I'm so glad I happened to watch Mr. French's video first.
I tried the other person's videos and had to stop after about five seconds. Mr. French's was a good watch.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#465Bricks and Minifigs is a very popular birthday party destination for my kids peers. I will make sure to share this story with anyone considering to go there and allow them to form their own conclusions.
I wonder if it would hurt them if many people went in, bought an item, and returned it? Either by restocking fees or credit card headaches.
The individual franchises can always get the clue and drop being a franchise, just be a local store.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#466Way to do millions of dollars in PR damage over 200k.
As this story spreads people will just assume the whole chain is bad.
The bigger story is an elderly man needing to sell his toys to pay for cancer treatment.
We could give all people free cancer treatment, but defense contractors need money.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#467Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that hard to understand. A man gave a store merchandise on consignment, signed a contract with the store manager. The manager lost control of the store to corporate. The goods were still there, still on display and being sold. Corporate says, "this is mine now" and refuses to honor the contract. "It wasn't our name on it, says right here that the previous store manager signed this, and she's no longer with u…
As soon as there is a shred of dispute every theft becomes a contract dispute
Well, you might say that.
> The police, for their part, kept calling it a "civil matter" and declining to investigate. Every single time.
On the other hand...
> In a subsequent conversation after the store closure and lawsuit loss, when Ben indicated the logical next step was to pursue Johnson personally, Josh's response, according to documented accounts, included the threat: "If you try to pursue me legally, YOU stole the LEGOs."
> Shortly after that conversation, someone called in a police report claiming Reckless Ben was transporting heroin.
This is a strange choice by Johnson, since it instantly transforms the civil dispute into a criminal offense.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that hard to understand. A man gave a store merchandise on consignment, signed a contract with the store manager. The manager lost control of the store to corporate. The goods were still there, still on display and being sold. Corporate says, "this is mine now" and refuses to honor the contract. "It wasn't our name on it, says right here that the previous store manager signed this, and she's no longer with u…
Corporate is also claiming that they don't allow stores to take on consignment deals, contrary to their franchise agreement explicitly allowing franchise owners to take on consignment deals.
Corporate is lying a lot, and is pretty clearly guilty of theft at the very least.
The bigger problems I see here are:
1. You can't really sure large corporations like Bricks & Minifigs. They've got deeper pockets and can drag it out until you go bankrupt. There's no good legal recourse for this, meaning larger corporations can basically do whatever they want and ignore the law, as long as they only hurt people smaller than them.
2. The police refuses to treat this as the theft it is. There have been several confrontations with police that give a very strong impression that the police is corrupt and protecting the Bricks & Minifigs and its crimes.
3. Reckless Ben's questionable shenanigans seem to be the only way to fight for justice in unequal situations like this. The offending franchise is now closed. The victim still doesn't have his lego or money back, but thanks to Ben, Bricks & Minifigs is now also feeling the pain. Without that, they would have simply gotten away with it. Chance are they've done stuff like this before.
Also interesting are some of the stunts Ben has pulled:
1. Confronted with the claim that it's a civil matter, he tried turning it into a crime, by holding a raffle for one of the stolen sets that's still legally owned by the victim. The winner of the raffle went to pick it up, and was refused, making it theft from a lottery, which is a crime that the police is supposedly required to investigate (they didn't).
2. Several people buy $10k worth of lego from the victim and claim it from the shop. When they're refused, they go to small claims court, which is now possible because it's only $10k. Bricks & Minifigs ignored it and closed the shop instead. There are default judgements in favour of the people helping the victim, but there doesn't seem to be any way to enforce them.
3. He went out of his way to get the company to sue him, which is apparently better than him suing the company? I'm not sure why. But Bricks & Minifigs didn't bite.
The most effective thing has simply been the PR. The public attention may finally get law enforcement to investigate and punish Bricks & Minifigs. Or at least the broader public will know and avoid Bricks & Minifigs, so at least the company gets punished financially. That won't help the victim, but at least it would be some measure of justice.
Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#469The best part about this is that the CEO insists that the agreement with the previous store owner is null (thus relieving him of the burden of paying 200k), and yet he also insists on keeping the Lego collection set and selling it. It's comical.
Would a simple audit not completely destroy this case? "How did you acquire these sets?" "Uhm... don't know they just appeared out of nowhere" Straight to jail.
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Re: Bricks and Minifigs Stole a Man's $200k Lego Collection
#470Earlier quoted context omitted.
> multiple officers were also BYU alumni American Fork, UT is literally 10 miles from Brigham Young University, and BYU represents 1/4th of the state's bachelors degrees. It's a bit like saying police officers in Italy are Catholic. I'd be more surprised if they weren't tbh. (Disclaimer: I live near that area and also graduated from BYU.)
Yeah, as a non-Mormon, I agree. I think the Mormon connection is a paranoid distraction. The behavior of the police can be explained by the same kind of corrupt-small-town-police-defending-locals-from-outsiders behavior that happens across the country.
> The behavior of the police can be explained by the same kind of corrupt-small-town-police-defending-locals-from-outsiders behavior that happens across the country.
Mormons aren't implicated, but I fail to see how this can explain the behavior of the Oregon police.