News & Events

$185,000 Donation after

Shoplifting Bust

April 22, 2008 (MINNEAPOLIS) – The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office is helping make sure a very large donation gets into the right hands after a shoplifting bust in the Twin Cities.  In partnership with Macy’s, the Sheriff’s Office is turning over $185,000 worth of women’s clothing to Ready for Success.  Most of the clothing is from American and European designers including Etro, Issey Miyake, Jean Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana, L.A.M.B., Hale Bob, Juicy Couture, Seven and True Religion.

Ready for Success, a program of Episcopal Community Services, provides low-income women with gently-used professional clothing, accessories and new personal care items suitable for job interviews and the workplace.  Clients at Ready for Success are referred by local social service agencies, and are often experiencing a life transition.

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office reminds you that shoplifting affects all of us by:

  • raising costs to consumers
  • taking tax revenue away from communities
  • forcing companies to go out of business
  • burdening law enforcement and the court system
  • hurting the lives of individuals and families

Organized retail crime has become a huge trend, costing Americans about $25 billion each year.  Professional shoplifters, called "boosters," will steal items from legitimate shops and sell it to other shops called “fences.”  Fences will usually give boosters 10 to 25 percent of the retail value of the items in either cash or drugs.

Some fences are authorized dealers of the stolen merchandise they sell, but use the stolen items to pad their books.  Many of these investigations uncover additional criminal activity such as drug and weapons violations, gambling, auto theft, tax violations, mail fraud, and burglary offenses.

“Illegal fencing operations attract career criminals looking to sell stolen property,” says Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek.  “These same criminals will use those dollars to purchase drugs near our schools, homes and neighborhoods.  We need to stop them before they hurt our families.  You can help by not buying merchandise from them.”

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office will be delivering the clothing to Ready for Success at 1:30pm on Tuesday, April 22, 2008.  Ready for Success is located at 425 Oak Grove Street, Minneapolis.  You are welcome to shoot pictures of the Sheriff’s Office unloading the clothing.  Sheriff Stanek and representatives from Ready for Success will also be available for interviews.  NO additional information is available regarding the shoplifting investigation.

Ready for Success accepts clean, gently-used and new professional and business casual clothing.  Donations of shoes, scarves, jewelry, watches, purses belts, seasonal outerwear and new undergarments are particularly needed, as are clothing items in sizes 14 and higher.  Ready for Success utilizes the time and talents of over 200 volunteers for clothing intake and care, personal shoppers, site managers and fundraising.  To donate items to Ready for Success, call (612) 813-5600 x16 – to volunteer, call (612) 871-4086 or contact Sue Veazie at sveazie@ecsmn.org

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Parish Ambassadors


Hello from Episcopal Community Services! Many of you who are reading this piece are familiar with ECS, but I’m sure that some of you are not really sure what the organization actually does. Don’t worry, you are not alone!

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Partner Congregations in Action

Sumara, a 17 year-old girl from West Africa arrived in Minnesota, in early 2006, with her parents and 12 year-old sister. Sumara and her family had spent the previous two years in a refugee camp after fleeing from the violence in their homeland.

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An Early Christmas Gift

In late November 2007, ECS received an early Christmas gift….by telephone. 

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YOUR GIFT GOES FAR

See how your gift helped our families in need in 2007.