Justin Cauley, A plumber replacing a toilet at Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch heard objects falling behind the wall as he worked. He investigated the noise and made a startling discovery.
He found over 500 of cash-filled envelopes concealed within the walls of the polarizing celebrity televangelist’s church. What’s truly suspicious is that the story has been kept largely under wraps. Nobody even knew what had happened until the plumber himself came out and revealed the incident on 100.3 The Bull, a country music radio station.
“There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,” Justin told the radio station. “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!’”
While it’s clear that someone deliberately hid the money inside the wall, the identity of the cash hoarder remains a mystery – but many suspect Joel Osteen himself or an assistant. It also appears that this newly discovered money is related to a 2014 theft where $600,000 was reported stolen from the church’s safe.
A church representative released a statement, “Recently, while repair work was being done at Lakewood Church, an undisclosed amount of cash and checks were found. Lakewood immediately notified the Houston Police Department and is assisting them with their investigation.”
Justin received a $20,000 reward from the nonprofit organization CrimeStoppers, which had posted the reward money for information about the 2014 robbery.
Watch the full news video below to learn more.