Plumber Who Discovered Cash in the Walls of Joel Osteen's Megachurch Demands Reward
The plumber who found cash and checks in a wall in Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas has demanded a reward for his efforts.
Newsweek reported on the plumber, who wished to remain anonymous, last week after her called into KILT-FM radio and told them he discovered loads of envelopes with cash and cheques in them while working at the church on November 10.
He said: "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'
"I went ahead and contacted the maintenance supervisor that was there, and I turned it all in."
The total amount of money and checks found in the envelopes was not disclosed but the Houston Police Department has said the envelopes may be tied to a 7-year-old case they have with the church.
Houston police said this discovery could be tied to a 2014 case they have in which $600,000 was stolen from the church.
According to 7 News WWNYTV the plumber has since come out and said he feels he deserves a reward for helping towards resolving the unsolved case.
He said: "I didn't solve their case, but I solved very key important clues as to what could or may have happened there.
"I feel like I should get something. I feel like some type of reward should get offered to me."
At the time of the initial theft in 2014 there was a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. No arrests have so far been made in the 2014 case.
The deputy director of Crime Stoppers of Houston, Nichole Christoph, also addressed the case and said because of the expired statute of limitations on this particular felony theft case, the plumber will not get any money from Crime Stoppers.
He added: "That doesn't preclude Lakewood from giving him a reward or a combination from Houston Police Department congratulating him on doing the right thing but unfortunately Crime Stoppers is out of the picture at that point."
The radio host that spoke to the plumber also questioned what this discovery would mean for the case, which made national headlines at the time.
Speaking to the plumber the KILT-FM host said: "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? If the plumber never had been doing that work behind that toilet, they would have never known that money was there."
Neither the Houston Police Department or the church have confirmed that the money found is indeed the money that was stolen in 2014.
Newsweek has contacted the Houston Police Department for comment.
