Plumber Discovers Money, Checks In Wall Of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church
You may remember hundreds of thousands of dollars that were stolen from a safe at Lakewood Church. It was a big headline back in 2014.
Now, all these years later, another bombshell has dropped.
A plumber says he found a large amount of money in a wall while he was doing work at the church on Nov. 10, 2021. Evidence from the recovered checks suggests this November case is connected to the March 9, 2014 theft report of undisclosed amounts of money at the church, Houston police confirmed Friday.
The news about the recent discovery came to light on a radio morning show at 100.3 The Bull.
“It was just unbelievable!” morning show host for the Morning Bullpen at 100.3 The Bull George Lindsey said. “The things he was telling us that they found in the walls.”
Lindsey was shocked when he listened to viewers Thursday morning, but says this one caller really took the segment over the edge.
“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!’”
The caller said the envelopes were full of cash and checks.
“I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there, and I turned it all in,” he added.
Lindsey couldn’t believe what he had just heard.
“We were like, ‘What are you talking about?’” Lindsey said. “So, then he relayed to us that in 2014 there was a big story about money being stolen from Lakewood Church that they never recovered.”
In fact, the Houston Police Department is still investigating the seven-year-old case involving the disappearance of $600,000. It’s unclear how much money the plumber discovered, but the case raises a lot of questions.
“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.
A representative from Lakewood Church acknowledged cash and checks were found at the facility during repairs.
Crime Stoppers of Houston offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a suspect at the time of the theft. Now, we’re wondering if the plumber who discovered money in the walls will be rewarded.
“He’s the one who found it,” Lindsey said. “If he never had been doing that work behind that toilet, they would have never known that money was there.”
KPRC 2 spoke to Crime Stoppers of Houston who said, in this case, they offered the reward only for information leading to an arrest. In order to receive the reward, the tipster would need to contact Crime Stoppers to provide identifying information on the suspected thief.
Given the time of the case, Crime Stoppers of Houston said the statute of limitations has expired and the plumber who made the discovery will not receive any reward money.