Plumber Working On Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church Finds Envelopes Stuffed With Cash & Checks Inside Wall
A plumber working on Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church found quite a surprise during his time on the job.
According to KRPC Channel 2, an anonymous repair man called into 100.3 The Bull with host George Lindsey to detail what he discovered when he took a job working on the televangelist's Houston church on November 10.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” the plumber told the radio host. “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!'"
(The discovery comes nearly seven years after $600,000 was allegedly taken from the church's safe. Authorities in Houston reportedly never solved the crime.)
But the honest worker didn't run off with the cash. “I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there, and I turned it all in,” he explained, per the outlet.
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Lindsey asked the caller: “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?”
The Lakewood Church confirmed the strange discovery by the plumber — while remaining tight lipped about the amount discovered — in a statement via a representative.
“Recently, while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church, an undisclosed amount of cash and checks were found,” the statement reportedly said. “Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation. Lakewood has no further comment at this time.”
Meanwhile, another strange occurrence within the church happened in 2017, in which Osteen, 58, claimed he had to turn victims of Hurricane Harvey away from his church because it was flooded. One twitter user provided evidence that the church was not flooded, showing pictures of the Texas facility perfectly dry.