About seven years ago, church leaders at celebrity televangelist Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church reported that $600,000 in checks and cash had been stolen from the church’s safe.
Now, years later, a plumber says he found nearly 500 envelopes of money and checks in the wall of that same church, NBC affiliate KPRC 2 reports. The plumber says he was doing repairs at the Houston megachurch on Nov. 10 when he found the money behind a loose toilet.
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At this time, it is unclear how much money the plumber found, but he said after the discovery, he alerted the maintenance supervisor and turned in the money. He talked about it on the morning show of 100.3 The Bull, a country radio show in Houston.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” he said. “We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall, and I was like ‘Oh wow!’”
A representative from the church acknowledged that money was found during repairs at the church.
“Recently, while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church, an undisclosed amount of cash and checks were found. Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation,” the representative said.
Needless to say, the plumber and many others are puzzled by the peculiar discovery. After all, the Houston Police Department is still investigating the $600,000 burglary.
No arrests have been in the case as it remains an ongoing investigation. Back in 2014, Crime Stoppers of Houston offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest of the suspect.
KPRC reached out to Crime Stoppers of Houston, asking if the plumber would be rewarded after his discovery; however, they said a cash reward would only be offered for information that led to an arrest.