Who Is Brian Brandt? Nevada Man Charged For Slamming Tractor-Trailer Into Brothel

Forty-year-old Brian Brandt has been identified as the man who deliberately crashed a stolen semi tractor-trailer through a Nevada brothel, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, on Thursday 4 a.m. local time (7 a.m. EDT).

Although his motive for doing this has not been confirmed yet, it has been determined he had a 20 year feud with the brothel. The police was contacted after Brandt, wearing a mask and body armor, crashed the vehicle into the front gate of the brothel. He was not in possession of a weapon at the time.

Brandt was arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, property destruction and possession of stolen property, according to a statement on the Facebook page of the Lyon County Sheriff's Office. He is being held at the detention facility in Yerington, Nevada and no lawyer has been appointed for his defense yet.

Although the brothel, which has been featured in the reality show, “CatHouse,” incurred structural damages estimated to be around $400,000, none of the 45 people inside the establishment, including staff, prostitutes and guests were injured. This was confirmed by Dennis Hof, the owner of the brothel, CBS News reported.

At the same time, those who did witness the incident were shook up by it due to it sounding "like a bomb going off," Hof added, Las Vegus Sun reported. Brandt did not have any prior connection with the Brothel or anyone working within it, according to Hof, which was corroborated by the statement made by Lyon County Sheriff's Office.

“Earlier reports from statements made at the scene indicated Brandt was a former employee of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. Our records and further investigation shows Brandt was never an employee of the Moonlight Bunny Ranch or any other brothel in Lyon County,” said the Lyon County Sheriff's Office.

However, Brian Brandt had reached out to News 4 recently, saying he was "extremely upset" with an incident that happened in the brothel in question 20 years ago. No other details about that are known yet.

According to his Facebook page, Brandt attended two high schools, Lake Havasu City High School and Edward C. Reed High School. He is married and lives in Palm Springs, California. A picture of his wife was not available on his Facebook page.

On July 28, he uploaded a picture of a rifle called “widow maker,” and captioned it “This is the Widow Maker. Known for taking many miners lives from inhaling to [sic] much dust.”

One of Brandt’s hobbies could to be biking given the multiple pictures he uploaded of himself, posing beside or riding a bike. In a comment on one of the pictures of him riding a bike, he said, “This was in Colfax, CA early 90s Before I moved to LakeHavasu, Az. 92 OR 93.”

Brandt is a former driver, who was working with Central Transport. The stolen Tractor-trailer used by Brandt belonged to the northern Nevada terminal of the Michigan-based company. Brandt was fired from the company for unruly behavior. The details of it though have not been revealed by Mickey Blashfield, director of community relations for Central Transport.

Blashfield did confirm, however, that a truck with a bright yellow cab was stolen from their property hours before the suspect drove it into the brothel.

“He showed up early this morning at the terminal and commandeered a truck. The next thing we heard was a call from the Bunny Ranch about an incident taking place there,” Blashfield said, USA Today reported.

Bunny Ranch owner Dennis Hof meanwhile, owns another brothel known as Love Ranch outside Las Vegas, where Lamar Odom, the former NBA player and former husband of reality star Khloe Kardashian, was found unconscious in 2015.