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

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.’”

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.