Money Found by Plumber at Joel Osteen’s Church Is Tied to 2014 Burglary, Police Say
Seven years ago, Lakewood Church, the Houston megachurch led by Joel Osteen, the prominent televangelist, reported that $200,000 in cash and $400,000 in checks had been stolen from a church safe.
Last month, the money may have been discovered — not by detectives or church personnel, but rather by a plumber fixing a toilet inside a church bathroom.
The plumber revealed the discovery on Thursday when he called into a Houston radio show.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” he said on 100.3 FM’s morning show. “We went to go remove the toilet, and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall.”
The plumber said he contacted a maintenance supervisor and then gave the church the envelopes. On Friday, the Houston police confirmed that the money appeared to be connected to the 2014 theft.
