YouTuber Ben Schneider can go back to posting content about his viral dispute with the Utah-based Lego resale company Bricks & Minifigs, but he’s not allowed to come within 100 yards of one of the company’s stores.
Or offices. Or employees’ homes.
He’s also not allowed to impersonate delivery drivers. Or the police. Or franchisees.
U.S. District Judge David Barlow signed off on the order Monday, marking the latest turn in the legal snarl between the company and Schneider, who creates content under the name “Reckless Ben.”
Schneider has posted several videos across two accounts documenting his quest to recover a massive collection of Star Wars Lego sets and minifigures for an 83-year-old man and his son, Bryan Mansell. Mansell consigned the sets to one of the company’s franchise stores in Oregon.
American Fork police say Schneider has acknowledged sending people to the home of Utah resident Joshua Johnson, one of the men Schneider accuses of stealing some of the collection with Bricks & Minifigs. Schneider says the original collection was worth $200,000, a sum the company disputes.
Read more: Viral Reckless Ben Lego videos skewer American Fork police. Here’s a look at 5 key moments.
Schneider has traveled to Oregon and Utah to confront Bricks & Minifigs associates, including Johnson and Brandon Best. Both men have since left the company due to a “devastating social media campaign,” according to a June news release from the business.
Meanwhile, Schneider helped to raise roughly $514,000 for the family who lost the sets, while also gaining subscribers on Patreon, a platform where people can pay to access exclusive content of his account of the dispute.
The conflict snowballed into dueling lawsuits and multiple criminal charges against Schneider, 30, of California.
In a lawsuit filed in May in Utah’s 4th District Court, the company accused Schneider, Mansell and others of coordinating a harassment and extortion campaign targeting Bricks & Minifigs franchise owners in Utah and Oregon.
In the filings, Bricks & Minifigs alleges the collection was lost while the Oregon store was owned by Chrystal Law, whom the company alleges abandoned the franchise location.
Law may have sold the collection without payment to Mansell, the company said, but she has strongly denied this allegation in her own lawsuit, which accuses Bricks & Minifigs of breaking their contract.
Here are the cases related to the dispute and where they stand.
Bricks & Minifigs sues
On June 2, 4th District Judge Tony Graf issued a temporary restraining order in Bricks & Minifigs’ lawsuit, prohibiting Schneider or any associates from creating any false, misleading, harassing or defamatory content about the company or Johnson and Best. The order also required that any videos already published related to the dispute be “immediately removed.”
The videos remained on Schneider’s YouTube accounts, but Schneider issued a “final message” on June 9, where he told viewers he was “no longer able to talk about” a “mystery company,” or he could face jail time and lose in the lawsuit.
The case was transferred to federal court on June 26. On Monday, Barlow, the federal judge, ruled that Schneider can now comment on the litigation through “any lawful means or methods they choose” because both parties have agreed to mediation. Both sides also agreed to the new order.
“One month ago I was wrongfully silenced,” Schneider said in a video posted Tuesday to his YouTube channel titled ‘I can talk again.’ “Today, I got my freedom of speech back. … I can say whatever I want, I can say Bricks & Minifigs sucks, I can say Bricks & Minifigs steals from old people. Look, I just said it and I’m not in jail, which is sick!”
The company insists the $200,000 price tag Schneider has touted was used only for promotional purposes to draw people to the store to see the collection. The actual value of the sets, the company says, is between $95,000 and $100,000.
Bricks & Minifigs says Law, the former owner of the Oregon store, got the Star Wars sets through an unauthorized consignment agreement and sold most of the collection before Johnson and Best took over the location. The resale chain says a portion of what was likely part of the collection — valued between $2,000 and $5,000 — was left at the store.
The company said it tried to return the leftover sets but Mansell refused. In one of Schneider’s videos, Schneider showed a purported email exchange with Mansell’s attorneys and the company, where the company said it considered the manner “closed” and that it would not be returning any sets to him.
The company has said repeatedly it wants to find a solution to the dispute with the Mansell family.
Original store owners sue
Law and Benjamin Gorman — the previous owners of the Oregon franchise location — have filed their own lawsuit for contract fraud, defamation and other claims against Bricks & Minifigs’ BAM Franchising.
In the suit filed in March, they allege that Bricks & Minifigs improperly ousted them and “seized control of the business and changed the locks that same evening” without prior notice or compensation.
Roughly half of the Mansell collection — which originally “comprised over 780 sets and 1,200 minifigures” — remained in the store, the suit said. That remaining inventory seized by BAM was worth up to $125,000, it contends.
In a May court filing. Bricks & Minifigs filed a motion to pause the proceedings and compel mediation, which the company alleges is required in its agreements with franchise owners.
Prosectors file stalking charge
Schneider was charged with stalking and targeted residential picketing after he repeatedly went to and sent people to Johnson’s home over four days in March. Schneider has said his visits, documented in his videos, were intended to serve court papers in the small claims case he filed against Johnson in Oregon — although police said they included sending a fake UPS driver to deliver a box of rubber ducks in an alleged bid to get his signature.
On May 20, Utah 4th District Judge Thomas Low issued a pretrial protective order prohibiting Schneider from contacting Johnson or visiting his home. Schneider has appeared in virtual hearings for the case, and his next court hearing is scheduled for Aug. 12.
Prosectors file trespassing case
Court documents show Schneider was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing after a Dec. 10 incident at a Provo business park, where the Bricks & Minifigs corporate office is located. Schneider said in a YouTube video that this visit was his attempt to resolve the dispute before making his video series.
Schneider has appeared in virtual hearings for the case, and his next appearance is scheduled for Sept. 15.

Jordan Miller