Whether its massive size is the talk of the town or claims he didn't open it up to help his fellow Houstonians in Hurricane Harvey's aftermath (he says he did), Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church has received of a lot of attention. The institution dominated the headlines again in December 2021, thanks to a rather unusual find.
The story begins in 2014 when, as Click2Houston reported, the Lakewood Church reported the theft of $600,000 in cash and checks from a safe. Fast-forward to 2021, when 100.3's "The Morning Bullpen" got a call to remember (via Click2Houston). The show hosts were discussing the strangest things found in walls when a plumber shared what he apparently happened upon at the Lakewood Church: "There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile. 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!"
Those envelopes contained the missing cash and checks reported stolen in 2014. The plumber told the radio show hosts that he let the church's maintenance supervisor in on his peculiar find. In a statement obtained by Chron, the church said the money was insured when it went disappeared, noting that they were working with both the local police department and their "insurance company to restore the stolen funds to the church."
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmcWtja31wv8eam7Jlo56xpnnJqJylZZ%2BowaaxzWg%3D