A plumber reportedly found envelops of cash and checks in the bathroom wall of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, seven years after $600,000 was reported stolen from a church safe.
The plumber recently called the Morning Bullpen radio show on 100.3 The Bull to share the story, which left cohost George Lindsey in amazement.
“It was just like unbelievable the things he was telling us they found in the walls,” Lindsey said, according to KPRC.
The plumber told the show he was called in to repair a toilet, which led to the find on November 10, the Houston Chronicle reported.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” the caller told the show on Thursday, per KPRC. “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 he notified the church’s maintenance supervisor and turned the envelopes in.
“So then, he relayed to us that in 2014, there was big story about money being stolen from Lakewood Church,” Lindsey said.
In March of 2014, Houston police said some $200,000 in cash and $400,000 in checks were stolen from the church, according to Click2Houston. The theft reportedly occurred sometime between March 9-10 of 2014.
The Lakewood Church issued a statement indicating Houston Police were notified of last month’s discovery and are now assisting with the investigation, KPRC reported.
The total sum of checks and cash found remains unclear, but the circumstances surrounding the case bring about a number of mysteries.
“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, per KPRC.