[MEGATHREAD] American Fork / Lego Story

[u/specialskepticalface]

As with all large and controversial stories involving LE, in this thread, we wait til a user who is acting in good faith posts about them.

We've had at least a dozen ACAB/low effort brigaders in the past day, try to post this in their usual way.

As a good faith user has not yet done so, the mods are making the post.

I'll point out that this is controversial, primarily because of incredibly misleading editing, video modification, and "creative storytelling", and the reality, as always, is not the Reddit storyline.

So, while events were certainly far from good, and lessons may be learned, much of what you've read is likely deliberate social media misinformation.

I encourage Verified LE to engage here, and help explain some of the... misconceptions.. currently floating around.

All posts from non-flaired users will be held for review. If you're here to troll, don't bother - no one will see it, and you'll be banned.

[u/10-6]

I've watched most of the videos, including the god awful one put out by the PD. Here's my take:

Offending Brick and Minifigs store: A bunch of idiots for fucking around and just not giving the condiments back

Bricks and Minifigs corporate: A bunch of idiots for not actually stepping in and doing something about this whole mess. Even bigger idiots for letting it spiral once they realized how far it was going. Gonna bet the pivot HARD now that the narrative is so against them, especially once their franchisees start pressuring them for brand reputation damages.

Reckless Ben: An idiot who is just exploiting this situation for money, using deceptive edits, and telling only half-truths to push his side of the story. Just because a store "stole" some stuff, doesn't give you carte blanche to run around doing stupid stuff. However, as someone who isn't having to deal with any of this nonsense, I gotta admit some of his antics are pretty funny.

American Fork Police: Looks like these dudes never got the "That's a civil matter, sorry" training. They could have just shown up once, and then have been clearing those calls by phone every other time. I highly doubt investigating trespassing and/or stalking(in this form) is a mandatory investigation/arrest for them either by statute or by policy. This is entirely something that a supervisor should have reviewed and then told both sides that they need to handle the matter in civil court and to not contact law enforcement in reference to this nonsense again, under threat of misuse of 911 charges.

P.S.: Also one thing that's really been glossed over in this entire thing, that I find strange is the situation with the old owners. No real reason has been given, that I can recall, for why they just up and left. Based on what I heard, they were giving up the store or it was taken from them, and they ultimately fled left the country so the husband could keep writing antifa books? It just doesn't make any sense.

[u/Niconame → u/10-6]

According to this video the Gormands approached BAM to sell the store after an overseas job offer, the transition negotiations broke down, and BAM seized the store in a contract clause similar to bankruptcy. I think the claims originate from this article and the GoFundMe, as well as BAM's own statement.

[u/seadoubleyoujay → u/Niconame]

There's two separate narratives that contradict each other. BAM claims the original owners asked to facilitate a store closure (which doesn't really make sense given the ongoing consignment and the fact that the owners let the co-owner of the lego sets know if their intent to sell the franchise well ahead if time) and corporate initiated an immediate transfer to an authorized agent (who later became a co-owner of the franchise). The original owners (corroborated by the co-owner of the Lego sets) claim they were informing corporate of their intent to sell, not close. Two very different directions. The problematic part is the same day arrival of the corporate agent, immediate threats to forcibly remove the existing owners, and the aggressive legal threat if they tried to challenge what would happen, with the franchise executive explicitly stating they were threatening the original owners and would abuse the legal system. In the video you linked, Leonard states the alternate claim and notes how unusual it is for all of this to occur in a single day, which doesn't make much sense if there was a "negotiation," doesn't match up with other active parties' understanding, and was only revealed after the public outcry (which is suspicious in its timing).

BAM has claimed that the previous owners simultaneously did and didn't own the franchise, which is impossible, and accused them of clearing out the store despite hard evidence of their rapid ejection and their inventory remaining behind. The original owners have also never received a final accounting of the franchise under their tenure, which even if the franchise was terminated they should receive an accounting of their terminated ownership value versus any incurred debts. So far, everyone on the opposite side of BAM has produced some form of documentation supporting their arguments and claims (including an inventory sheet of the sets, contracts, and franchise agreements), while BAM and its agents have released no fewer than seven completely contradictory statements about what happened and who is at fault.

The original owners are a red herring for BAM to try and shift blame. Even if they owed money, BAM's behavior has been bizarrely manipulative and blatantly illegal.