Minnesota man leaves church his treasured car collection

A church in Minnesota is giving thanks for a remarkable donation that came from a congregation member whose generosity was revealed only after his death. In life, Dennis Erickson's gift was a carefully-guarded secret, but it will now affect generations to come. Mark Albert reports.

[@jeffreywong5112]

He lived his life surrounded with what he loves

[@catsmack8102]

Dennis was an usher for 15 years, yet this church knew very little about him. Why is that? He died in his sleep, a lonely man.

[@MarkTEwing]

@@catsmack8102 Too many churches operate as a business these days… the larger they are, the less connected they are with the people who attend there. It’s very sad.

[@IllusionSector]

Best use of any real estate EVER!

[@ohcrikey9560]

This is what happens to an obsessive toy collectors home when there is no woman at home to police it. Fantastic. Love it.

[@t3true-games]

not really. know many men with huge collections that are married. The wife just supports.. pshhh police it.

[@t3true-games]

ok i wrote my reply before watching the cars in the drawers.. this is another level.

[@johnclaeys376]

Amen

[@zx2781]

Funny and true. My wife feels the need to comment and roll her eyes whenever I get an addition to my collection(s)

[@GBURGE55]

@@zx2781 Me too. Most of my collection is in the loft/attic where the mr's doesn't go!

[@saleemwaheed9956]

I'd trade my wife and kids for that car collection! Dennis did it right!

[@ztlm1]

lmfao

[@dzdhandzcan816]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@infernoleviathan8868]

😂😂😂😂

[@eltonjohnfan100]

No woman to tell this man that he can’t enjoy something. And he sure enjoyed it to the end.

[@johndempster1902]

As a collector myself I can admire his collection and appreciate how he treasured them rightly or wrongly he made his choice and some of negative comments are just sour grapes,it would be nice if his gift was marked by a dedication or a permanent tribute to a nice guy

[@catsmack8102]

This man was an usher for 15 years, yet this church knew very little about him. Dennis was truly, a lonely man.

[@dzdhandzcan816]

GOD & his love for cars! I bet he was a great guy

[@awsomo53]

Very true. If anyone know of his collection, it would be common knowledge among the congregation.

[@catsmack8102]

@@awsomo53 I’m sure Dennis smiled, shook a lot of hands, and everyone liked me him. However, what they didn’t know, is he ate dinner alone every night. Dennis died of a broken heart. Could be wrong about this observation, but I think I’m spot on!

[@awsomo53]

@@catsmack8102 Pretty much. He had the congregation but it doesn't appear they were there for him.

[@Goodranite1293]

Having thousands of model cars > Having a gf who milks ur money for her luxuries, then dump u once you become broke.

[@PigMine7]

Wow, that collection is amazing!

[@nickylup9566]

+PigMine 7 yes it is amazing :)

[@dewittkandle5674]

There's only one thing you can say you got to love the guy.

[@krazyhippy]

U have any idea how much that collection is worth. It is an amazing collection. As a collector, I would hate to see it broken up.

[@gringo4x4do]

Or NOT Appreciated ! The article date is May 2016 , I HOPE the Collection went to those who could take care and treasure it

[@carlosarria2274]

2:09 these are Lamborghinis *points at Aston Martin*

[@daniruizft3263]

Its a ferarri FF, the aston is at the right

[@joseescobedo7899]

GUVE THIS MAN A MUSEUM

[@TruckEnthusiastYT]

This is basically what my room will look like in 50 years! I am an 11 year old and already have a couple thousand cars!

[@mikenonya6382]

I'd love to see some of your collection.

[@lalosdiecast]

Im a collector and wish I can get a hold of some these gems, but I hope they do a museum and the church not profit of a mans collection.

[@GBURGE55]

I presume that the collection was bequeathed to the church so surely the idea WAS to profit the church.

[@MrWolfSnack]

@@GBURGE55 It's literally in the video. It's a 6 figure collection and the church will use the money to build new classrooms. There are thousands of collectors like him all over the world that have collections this large, most do not get a chance to sell it before they pass on and it goes to a landfill if they have no family.

[@GBURGE55]

@@MrWolfSnack I AM one of those thousands of collectors. I have a 1/43 & 1/18 collection of 3200 model cars. My collection (worth approx £75,000) has been bequeathed to family members I think you misunderstood my initial comment?

[@cobracommander9138]

It seems like nobody cared to know him until he passed away and left his valuable property to the church. I bet if they had taken the time and talked to him he would have talked their ears off about classic cars. Maybe he wouldn't have told them about his collection or the extent of it but I bet he loved talking about cars.

[@gringo4x4do]

May 2016 ! Hope the Collection went to Appreciative Individuals who took care of and Valued this AMAZING Collection ! It deserves Love and Respect

[@georgeschire3590]

This story and commitment to collecting brought tears to my eyes. I understand it. It's mind-blowing!

[@graceemma77]

This gives an all new meaning to Minnesota nice ! ♥️

[@jasonrollins4485]

Amazing collection. Reason preacher couldn't speak cuz of dollar signs in his eyes.

[@avgeekuk1106]

2:08 theres not one Lamborghini in that entire cabinet

[@SofiVardanyan991]

avgeek uk she a woman mate it's ok lol

[@SWDiesels]

IKR 🤣🤣🤣😂

[@isaacluna8775]

@@SofiVardanyan991 your a simp mate

[@dertythegrower]

The car she is pointing to is dark black, open your eyes... its a black, very wide low body, like a lambo.

[@zaberfluten8978]

@@dertythegrower that looks more like a Maserati, Ferrari or Aston Martin definitely not a Lamborghini.

[@lincbond442]

Many of those cars are valued at hundreds of dollars apiece. Some rare models might even be in the thousands. At an average price of $20 each, this collection is worth at least $640,000. On the higher end, it could be worth in excess of $1,000,000.

[@roberteye7197]

442s rule

[@krazyhippy]

It is for sure worth over a million. Some of those rare cars can cost 500 dollars for one.

[@dzdhandzcan816]

He’s definitely at $1.5 million including the real cars GREAT COLLECTION..... this is how my home will look in 59 years GOD WILLING

[@bobsilver3983]

I thought I have a lot of diecast cars...the collection that man had was incredible! I have around 1000 Hot Wheels/Matchbox/M2 Machines/Johnny Lightning./Maisto/Greenlight and Autoworld.

[@joelaugustestudios]

That’s awesome! I counted my car collection a long time ago and I’ve estimated at about 2000 cars.

[@MrLipgut]

A sermon about generosity? I wonder if they were generous enough to donate a good portion of that collection to a museum.

[@mattkatanchi2231]

The girl called the a Aston Martin a Lamborghini 2:09

[@VMIFerrari]

I noticed that too! I count two Bentleys, two Astons, a BMW, and a Jaguar....but no Lamborghinis. LOL!

[@kanebowser-wieser3667]

SHUT UP!

[@nickzombar2591]

Matt Katanchi TRIGERED!!

[@lincbond442]

That "girl" has some years under her belt.

[@dertythegrower]

You all she is pointing to the 3rd car, its a black obviously wide body car.. its not an aston. Look better, its a black car, the 3rd car in the row (you can barely see it, its so dark black and not lit up)

[@MrWolfSnack]

I love how the room decorations and furnishings were never changed since the 1970's and he just kept adding cars to it.

[@dzdhandzcan816]

🤦🏾‍♂️🖤💔WOW!!!!!! NOW THIS IS WHAT IM TALKING ABOUT, MY MAN LIVED A GREAT LIFE!!!!! MAY GOD REST HIS SOUL VERY BEAUTIFUL & LARGE COLLECTION!!!! He makes my 150 Danbury & Franklin mint car collection look like 1 🤣🤣🤣🤣 & there is a SCALE MODEL SUPPLIES off university and Lexington I’ve been going there since the 90s today they don’t carry many cars people don’t collect as much today they only have majority trains planes and TC race track in the back

[@bruneydamekanic6151]

I thought I was overboard. Built a 1/24 scale garage so that it don’t look like I’m a hoarder. We’ll never mind. God & Cars

[@diecastcarsmatchbox1569]

That’s a fantastic story where did the collection end up ?

[@cobracommander9138]

Wow this was 6 years ago it would be nice to get an update and see the Mansion the preacher bought after he sold the collection.

[@adolfosalinas4352]

Wow huge nice wonderful collection !

[@PatrickCrossfire.]

Who bought all of this? It should had been put in a museum and not sold. A collection like this is impossible to replace. To sell it just to build more class rooms is absolutely outrageous and should be prevented from happening.

[@mikenonya6382]

I love cars, but tell me what museum would accept all of this? A toy museum?

[@mr.iforgot3062]

I agree! Classrooms? For kids? Kids suck!

[@bruneydamekanic6151]

Sell me a model from one Spiritual collector to another. That car will go between to the Daytona hemi 4spd and the blown hemi engine Charger. God knows I will take care of it.

[@MrWolfSnack]

There is no museum that will display a collection like this because mostly all of it is insignificant. A museum doesn't preserve everything, and they don't necessarily want everything. I have personal B-roll and video footage from a local legendary news TV anchor to my city that I found at an estate sale by sheer chance. It is stuff he filmed for the station himself and were the master copies that the news segments were duplicated from. I have kept it all together and spent over $300 amassing the special broadcast VCR's to play the tapes and watch them. I have pondered several museums in my city and state if they would be interested and they either said "who is this?" or "no, we have no use for that". I paid just $10 for the lot and their next stop would have been the landfill had I not found them.

[@TruFinesse86]

Instead of building a toy museum in his honor they build classrooms

[@parshuram8031]

Diecast collection is addictive

[@zx2781]

Highly addictive and expensive. Can't stop .

[@MrWolfSnack]

@@zx2781 I wouldn't say it's expensive, unless you're going after expensive stuff. I buy $10-$20 bulk lots of vintage cars. You can get over 200 cars for $16 most times. I am perfectly happy with that, and get tons and tons of rare cars you won't find elsewhere.

[@Bigboybusington2988]

That is literally my dream house. I’m going to expand my collection of cars like that and best of all I’m not going to get married so I don’t have some controlling wife forcing me to get rid of it all.

[@salvatoreluciano3658]

Last place i,d leave them to what a great collection, rest easy

[@ShivMathur]

He should have actually run a car museum instead of hiding them inside till his death.

[@drivendreamsorg]

Amazing, what a great guy 🙏 we hope to receive some collections.

[@romio7715]

Wow my god i love all this Cars 😢😢😢 what a good man he was.......

[@keepitthoro6768]

it went to the wrong place...smfh

[@FrankypankyV8]

Awesome collection. Goes to the wrong place unfortunately. A church? Really? Was the collector that brainwashed? Why not a museum? Sad!

[@Buick_the_rd.master]

True

[@martingranlund2159]

wooooow i want that car collection...what a dream, i am a collector to, but i never gonna be soo close to you ...beautiful...

[@samfungccim]

What happened to the model cars collection? I have a collection also in the hundreds and my kids are not interested! Should set up a model cars museum to honor the guy and I can add my collection to it!

[@btmhotdrop2827]

Real car guy right there, and he owned a caprice 💪💪💯💯

[@marianurziceanu848]

Your collection is Amazing

[@mr.bombastic1173]

I just hope it's not broken apart and auctioned off.

[@kg6qzx]

I completely agree with you...funny how it all came down to them seeing $$ and selling it off. Maybe he wanted it to be a museum display or thought they’d respect his collection that way. It was his passion right up to the end and now all they can think to do is sell it off. Only fellow collectors understand what he would’ve wanted. It wasn’t about money for him..:I’m sure of that. Rest In Peace and it was a great collection to see.

[@felipepineda1585]

He wanted to help his church. After 69 years, I am sure every scenario ran through his mind and he was engineer meaning he was probably very intelligent. Not to mention if he did not want something for it (like it being possibly broken up) I'm sure he would have left a note, instructions, a video, leave that in a will or something.

[@ferguson20diesel49]

What will the church do with this

[@plopplop5218]

Eat it

[@nunstersplace]

All the church seen is MONEY. They didn't see his collection, just how much money they can get by selling off his collection.

[@catsmack8102]

Dennis was an usher for 15 years. How is it, this church knew very little about him?

[@SCDC-Channel]

"This are Lamborghinis" lol...Epic collection btw.

[@anthonydominguez7026]

If I had the money and that church wants to sell off his collections then I would buy his collections in order to have a museum in that collector's honor. I bet he had more die cast than the county clerk would have more records. That man is with God and no doubt about it.

[@gambit_toys6554]

Man still getting deliveries after his death 😢

[@jimbo992]

“These are Lamborghini’s (points to a Ferrari and Aston Martin) 😂😂

[@vaperonly76]

Wow, amazing collections.

[@discordmykong4314]

I'll do that in my life I have 600 hot wheels and I'll keep going

[@jackh.3052]

Buy 1:18 model cars pls

[@BlazeSaylor]

That house probably should never be touched, that man must A LOT of work into putting them everywhere and rearranging them. They should just be kept there forever.

[@enz0368]

personally, if i had a collection like that and i donated all of it, the last thing i would want for it is to be sold.

[@MarianneMorris]

Wow lots of collection

[@petebusch9069]

Best HW story I"ve ever heard.

[@keeganbayer8877]

I’ve started collecting toy cars since I was 2 years old . Now I’m 12 and already have 1000 something cars

[@trevagraham1605]

I hope this collection is still intact somewhere. This is incredible!!!!

[@stephens9227]

Not gonna happen when they use them to attract kids and expand classrooms for the church.

[@t3true-games]

Man after my own heart. sadly nobody probably knew because people judge .. so he kept it to himself

[@stevemason5173]

Amazing... I have been collecting diecast and building model car kits more than 60 years now. My collection has grown to over 13,000 cars and trucks of various. My insurance company hooked me up with an appraiser several years ago who spent over two days inspecting and counting my cars.I was shocked at the value figure he gave me and my insurance company. I have since built a 24' X 16' room onto my garage to keep my collection in. I am out of room already!!! It's the greatest hobby out there!!!

[@shankarbalan3813]

Wow. Fantastic!

[@GK-Modelcar-Universe]

This collector made all right :) Never have enoght cars !!! :)

[@d.b.1176]

Helping to pay for the pastors private jet and girlfriend on the side.

[@Smokedship]

What a sweet story and the best part is that people haven't defaulted to Church bashing for a change.

[@mihaiapstru7483]

2:22 : 32000 cars is not "one of the largest private collections in the world". Far from it.

[@jamshedcheema3490]

Which is the largest?

[@soccershorts8228]

Good job 👍👍👍

[@backwardk]

Without going too much into it, members of this church pilfered a bunch of stuff before it hit the auction house…..but after the auction house made the deal to handle the collection.

[@lalosdiecast]

"DOLLAR WISE or where they went" lol TF outta here

[@heru-deshet359]

That doesn't look like a struggling church. I hope they use the money from it to really help the less fortunate.

[@kevinc1001]

The sad thing is I bet (if they all didn't sell) probably either went to a bunch of 4 and 5 yr old's or got dropped off at a Savers or some other type of donation store.

[@akkavelli]

So what? I have over 4000 hot wheels/matchbox cars and my 3 year old son loves playing with them. End of the day they are just that, TOY cars.

[@elongated_musket6353]

@@akkavelli Thing is, some of them are worth hundreds or even thousands and have fragile parts. In a sealed package, they're worth even more., especially when they're harder to come by when the manufacturer doesn't produce them anymore. If something breaks or if they aren't properly handled, a 1.5 million dollar collection is suddenly worth half of that. These aren't toys.

[@robertchato3040]

Wow!!! Wonderful collection! Amazing!! God bless!

[@marcelorubenquirogaviera6526]

¡ Yeha, Fantastic collection, great example,

[@ShivMathur]

I wish I could also collect like him

[@VF1Skullangel]

The man died happy.

[@birdybutch]

lonely man. RIP

[@jasonkelly727]

What disgusts and angers me is that this video is just popping up on my feed. After 7 years?! Do better KZbin.

[@Rod-bp8ow]

It is a gift, it came from someone who has many gifts, preserve the gift, dedicate the gifts, archived the gifts and make it lasts a lifetime as the certifications signify. Dated decades. Non profit, non tax. Continuous as it is declared in detail, perfected by time. KJV 1611. Preserved, intact.

[@maxo1386]

i hope for my collection to grow this big i’m only 14

[@gmlcartalk]

You’ll get there, man. I’ve been collecting for a year and a half and have about 140

[@zx2781]

@@gmlcartalk 1 year and at 162 1/18s. Out of control.....

[@gmlcartalk]

@zx2781 bro you need help

[@lekhanyanemaboa9328]

My grandfather left a plan of how he saw his garage be stacked and I made accomplished

[@oneyedthing]

I was at confused at the title. I was thinking he stopped going to church because of his car collection Should have been "donated"

[@loganlott1666]

I build collect and love those cars

[@malachibenyisrael4621]

Wonderful

[@Dankpuffin]

Tax the churches

[@creegobeli7522]

what did they do do with all of the cars

[@skyylow]

When is the auction??

[@kevinmckenzie4633]

Wow, you can just see the greed in their eyes!!!

[@djpcinema]

Now that's my kind of hoarder!

[@Trija204]

2:09 ‘these are Lamborghinis’ Points at Ferraris and Aston Martins

[@andrediaslux]

"this are lamborghinis" pointing her finger to a ferrari women ☕

[@parshuram8031]

😂

[@joeguzman3558]

Every thing we all have will stay here _Everything_

[@robertphillips6296]

Any Updates?

[@CycolacFan]

Guess Dennis really hated that church… 😉

[@darrylclemons1660]

I would like to buy some of those.

[@genesis1.111]

He was a fake Christian. He was loving the things of this world instead of loving people. Idolater. Jesus said love your neighbor as yourself. Not love your material things. He loved his stuff more than God.

[@RumblerGaming]

"These are lamborghinis..." *points at aston martins*

[@roastwich6473]

" Th Es e aRE lAmBOrGhinIs " *Proceeds to point at a Ferrari FF and Aston Martin DBS*

[@BurleyFuzz]

Homeless People : "What's that you say? It's better to give than receive?" "Thank God, we really could use some help" Church: "Can't wait to sell this collection so we can invest in ourselves! We need more space, for more members, to give us more money! Lucky for us, everything is also Tax Free! Praise the Lord!"

[@lorenzogutierrez7488]

2:08 * points to Aston Martin next to another Aston Martin and Bentley with no Lamborghini in the cabinet *

[@grieferjesus4424]

Lorenzo Gutierrez I think that’s a Ferrari

[@dertythegrower]

She is pointing to a wide body black lambo.. yall are fkn blind

[@deez361]

Can't believe she mistook a Ferrari FF and an Aston for a Lamborghini

[@jerryhawk8434]

If I won the lottery I would buy it all

[@johnzabik270]

When they walked in they said "K-Ching" $$