A large US company, Bricks & Minifigs, is having its reputation destroyed on social media over a $200k Lego collection. Most of it was stolen from the owner, a dying grandfather wanting to sell the Lego and give the money to his grandchildren. The story takes a left turn, showing clear police corruption on video as officers protect store owners who won't return the Lego. I've been hooked on the story and have written a detailed recap (which I'll continue to update) of this complex debacle.
Absolutely not defending BAM or the police behaviour, but something that bothers me in the whole ordeal is that there is almost never any fact checking towards the other side.
1. The $200k figure seems is not grounded in reality. The entire collection is probably worth much less, BAM claim it was $100k[1] and then with some stuff being sold before the drama and payed out plus what was already returned it is very unclear how much BAM really kept. And yes even if it is just $100 it should be investigated but $200k is just accepted as fact everywhere.
2. I am really interested in how much at fault the previous owners are. They are portrayed as victims but I bet they share a lot of the blame in this whole mess and should be investigated.
"The $200k figure seems is not grounded in reality"
That is something I've been trying to investigate. I used the Salem Business Journal value because they seemed to be the only ones who had looked at it (at the time).
Plenty of updates today, thanks to BJC Live Show and Coffeezilla.
2028-06-11: Update: GoFundMe is back up. Added reports of U-Haul moving Lego, the amount GiveSendGo has raised so far, Legally Mine shady renaming, BAM details from the lawsuit against Daniel McNeff, AFPD review dates, and the date when Bryan’s payment was due. A new section for the value of the collection and how much was owed.
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[ 1.1 ms ] story [ 16.4 ms ] thread1. The $200k figure seems is not grounded in reality. The entire collection is probably worth much less, BAM claim it was $100k[1] and then with some stuff being sold before the drama and payed out plus what was already returned it is very unclear how much BAM really kept. And yes even if it is just $100 it should be investigated but $200k is just accepted as fact everywhere.
2. I am really interested in how much at fault the previous owners are. They are portrayed as victims but I bet they share a lot of the blame in this whole mess and should be investigated.
[1] https://bricksandminifigs.com/blog/blog/2026/06/04/bricks-an...
Now Coffeezilla has given a value of 107K, but it's unclear if he's counting minifigs. I've written a post here, trying to get to the bottom of it: https://www.reddit.com/r/RecklessBen/comments/1u2lg9v/does_c...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48391430
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48314136