There’s a crime story doing the rounds about a $200,000 Star Wars LEGO collection and YouTuber Benjamin “Reckless Ben” Schneider.
Notably, it seems like a huge legal mess. It came after the influencer tried to expose corporate greed. However, he landed up in handcuffs. Read on for more details.
The Initial Reports
East Idaho News reported on the bizarre chain of events. What started as a civil dispute in Oregon escalated fast.
The backstory involved a family who claimed that a Bricks & Minifigs franchise wrongfully kept their consigned LEGO.
That’s when Schneider stepped in and helped the family win a small claims case. However, the owners shut down the store. And the the owners claimed it was due to safety threats.
Investigative instincts fired up, Reckless Ben tracked the owners, Joshua Johnson and Brandon Best. After he found them in American Fork, Utah, things went horribly wrong.
Body Cam Footage
Police body cam footage recently arrived via Jesse Weber on his Sidebar segment on the Law&Crime Network. In it, crime fans saw that Schneider got arrested two days in a row.
The trouble started when he showed up wearing a UPS hat, trying to get the owner to sign for a package full of rubber ducks.
While true crime followers might snicker about it, the cops disapproved.
Nonetheless, they let him off with a warning that he was “walking a very dangerous line.”
Arrested For Stalking, Picketing
The very next day, the next day the cops booked him for stalking and targeted picketing.
Allegedly he put up a giant satirical lawn sign near the home with Johnson’s face and the words, “I stole a dying man’s life savings.”
Home Raided
After his first release, Schneider ran into problems with that crowd funder. The video and narrative showed that the cops raided the Airbnb he was renting, searched it, and brought him back in.
Schneider’s legal team and supporters argue his actions were protected speech and that he was attempting to serve legal documents.
Well, it seems that law enforcement, per their statutes, didn’t agree with the man at the heart of the Star Wars LEGO collection saga.
More Scenes Arrived
Instead, they opined that financial grievances don’t give anyone a pass to break harassment laws.
Schneider claimed that the department redacted body cam footage to hide an undocumented three-hour search.
So, Benjamin “Reckless Ben” Schneider suggested the cops “unredact the audio that makes the police look bad.”
Viewers React
Online reaction in the comments mostly leaned toward Reckless Ben. One of them read, “Reckless Ben is perfectly exposing the corruption going on in those police departments.”
However, others felt that Jesse Weber didn’t go far enough with his legal breakdown on it. Plus, he didn’t share the updated coverge that Ben released. And true crime folks seldom criticize him.
One irritated viewer wrote:
Why is Law and Crime not explaining that the police cannot trespass him when he’s not even stepping foot on his property? Plus the sign is legal. And it’s not illegal to post that sign. These police are seriously corrupt. Wow!!
Here’s another complaint, “Law & Crime should be ashamed of themselves. Jesse Weber is positively sweeping for those corrupt cops.”
Let us know what you think about the $200,000 Star Wars LEGO collection and YouTuber Benjamin “Reckless Ben” Schneider. And then, remember we have a true crime channel on TikTok you can follow.