Plumber Finds Envelopes Filled With Cash and Checks Behind Toilet in Joel Osteen’s Houston Megachurch

Adding to the mystery of it all is the fact that the discovery comes seven years after the reported theft of $600,000 from a Lakewood Church safe.

A man of God is seen smirking.
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A man of God is seen smirking.

A plumber called in to a country-focused radio station in Houston this week with quite a story to tell involving cash, checks, and a toilet at Joel Osteen’s megachurch.

On Thursday morning, per a report from regional outlet KPRC, the team at 100.3 The Bull were asking listeners to give them a ring if they had a story to share about finding something valuable. At some point, a plumber who recently did work at Lakewood Church called in and said he once found hundreds of cash-filled envelopes inside a wall at the facility.

“There was a loose toilet in the wall and we removed the tile, or they removed the tile,” the caller recalled. “[I] 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.’”

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The unexpected appearance of money near the toilet spurred the plumber to notify an on-site maintenance supervisor, after which he “turned it all in.” The total amount of cash and checks found in the church wall has not been revealed to the public.

In a statement shared with KPRC, a rep for Lakewood confirmed that an “undisclosed amount of cash and checks” had been found during a recent round of repair work. The Houston Police Department was “immediately” given notice of the finding, the church added. 

Of added interest here is the fact that, back in 2014, $200,000 in cash and $400,000 in checks were stolen from a Lakewood safe. That incident remains under investigation. Complex has reached out to reps for Lakewood Church and the Houston Police Department for additional comment.

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