The ongoing drama between YouTuber Reckless Ben, the Oregon branch of Lego store Bricks & Minifigs, and the American Fork police department in Utah is, understandably, the internet’s current obsession, as millions of people online have become enamored with the content creator and his quest to recover a family’s $200,000 Lego Star Wars collection.
It would seem that we can now count Patreon’s CEO, Jack Conte, amongst Reckless Ben’s fans, as Conte has publicly announced that Patreon will not be removing the content creator’s videos from the platform following an “immediate content removal” request from Bricks & Minifigs.
If you need an explainer to get up to date with the story so far, then trust me when I say that there’s no way to condense this bizarre tale into a single paragraph. So, instead, here’s where we left things last time: Reckless Ben has fled to Mexico following a “mystery” no-bail arrest warrant issued by American Fork police department, who he also alleges may be protecting Joshua Johnson and Brandon Best, the owners of the Oregon branch of Bricks & Minifigs, due to their shared ties to the Mormon church.
In the time between where we last left things and now, there have been two major updates. Firstly, as spotted by Dexerto, Bricks & Minifigs has issued a lawsuit against Ben and Bryan Mansell, the owner of the missing $200,000 Star Wars Lego collection, accusing the two of creating a “coordinated multi-platform campaign” against the company that contains “false accusations, fabricated claims, deceptive practices and manufactured confrontations to extort money, racketeer, profiteer and damage [the] Plaintiffs and their business interests.”
The timelines here are important to make note of, as the latest update in Bricks & Minifigs’ lawsuit, a verified motion to “compel mediation and then arbitration,” was issued on May 27, and directly mentions Reckless Ben’s content on Patreon. Jack Conte’s video was uploaded yesterday on June 2, which means that the Patreon CEO is aware of the fact that Reckless Ben’s videos are involved in a recently issued lawsuit.
Plus, Conte specifically notes in the video that the Bricks & Minifigs takedown notice was issued on “May 29,” after the latest update in the lawsuit. This makes it all the more juicy that Conte has chosen to publicly refuse Bricks & Minifigs’ takedown notice and, in turn, potentially goad them into suing Patreon.
“After an extensive review and investigation by Patreon’s Trust and Safety team, we have, in fact, unfortunately determined that Bricks & Minifigs can stuff it,” stated Conte. “We’re keeping Ben’s page up, and if Bricks & Minifigs doesn’t like that, they can sue us. Patreon out.”
On one hand, it’s obviously pretty ballsy for Conte to make a statement like this, but on the other hand…it just comes across as a good business decision to me. Worst case scenario, Bricks & Minifigs successfully sues Patreon and gets some money. However, if Patreon had decided to remove Reckless Ben’s content, the outrage and negative press online would do far more damage to the brand than Bricks & Minifigs would ever get out of them in court. Plus, this way, at least Conte gets to be the internet’s hero for 24 hours.