Why can I not access the data from my query?

        $threads = Thread::leftjoin('users', 'users.id', '=', 'threads.user_id')
        ->leftjoin('users as poster','poster.id', '=', 'threads.user_id')
        ->leftjoin('lewps_threads', 'lewps_threads.thread_id','=','threads.id')
        ->leftjoin('threads_users', 'threads_users.thread_id','=','threads.id');

        if($request->search){
            echo 'Search:' . $request->search;
            $threads->where('title', '=', $request->search);
        }

        if($request->author){
            echo 'author:' . $request->author;
            $threads->where('users.id', $request->author);
        }

        if($request->site){
            echo 'site:' . $request->site;
            $threads->where('threads.source', $request->site);
        }

        $threads->groupBy(array('threads.id', 'users.username','threads_users.boosts', 'users.id'))
        ->get(array('threads.*','users.username','threads_users.boosts'));

If I do a ->count() on it, I get a return of 3 which is what I expect. If I do a ->toSql() I see the expected sql statement. However if I do something like foreach($threads as $thread){ echo 'inside';} I get nothing displayed.

via Chebli Mohamed