Someone’s prayers have been answered. A plumber working at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, found $600,000 in cash and checks in the walls of a bathroom.
According to local news, someone called the plumber to fix a loose toilet and he found the money while removing it. Apparently, $600k is exactly the amount stolen from the church safe about seven years ago. That case was never solved.
The story was revealed on the morning radio show 100.3 The Bull when someone called in and said they did some work at the church.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” the caller 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!'”
Instead of keeping the money, the caller said they were honest and returned it.
“I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there, and I turned it all in,” he said.
Radio host George Lindsey said what we’re all thinking – that the two cases are related. But, for the record, there’s no evidence of that. Yet.
“Don’t you want to know what happened, I mean, they stole the money, but they didn’t get it out of the wall. Did they have an accident, you know what I mean? It’s like, why did they never go back? If it’s that money, why did they never go back?” Lindsey said.
Lakewood Church put out a statement confirming the incident.
“Recently, while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church, an undisclosed amount of cash and checks were found,” a representative said. “Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation. Lakewood has no further comment at this time.”
Osteen’s Lakewood church has also been in the news over having to return $4.4 million in Covid loans meant for small businesses. According to the NY Post, Osteen lives in a $15 million mansion.
