Posted on 12/09/2021 8:35:49 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
The plumber who accidentally recovered missing money in Joel Osteen's megachurch has been rewarded for his good deed.
In November, a large quantity of money was found in a bathroom at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. The plumber who made the discovery, known only as Justin, spoke publicly in early December, stating that he was fixing the wall behind a toilet when approximately 500 envelopes of cash and cheques fell out.
"There was a loose toilet in the wall and we removed the tile," Justin told Houston's 100.3 fm. "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'."
According to the Houston Police, the money is thought to be connected to a 2014 theft, wherein $600,000 of contributions were stolen from the megachurch.
As CNN reports, Lakewood Church made a donation of $20,000 to Houston Crime Stoppers, which the organization then gave to Justin, because "he is the rightful holder of that gift."
"He's a good Samaritan," they added. "He did the right thing."
Houston Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious said Justin was very quiet upon receiving the money, but thanked the organization for their gift, saying that their gift would "go a really long way" in these tough times.
Money behind a loose bathroom tile? Someone saw ‘The Black Dahlia’.
Please. It was supposed to be 25K. They were guilted into doing something by the media.
How so?
He found stolen money, so he gets a cut?
Most of what was found was checks that were never (and couldn’t be) cashed. $20K sounds like an appropriate finder’s fee in that context.
“Plumbing his best life ™️”
Beau is a Plumber (among other handy licensed things to be), so after reading this story and your comment, I NEED to get him Plumbing His Best Life, LOL!
Seems likely the thief has been accessing the money for years and still works inside the building. Perfect perpetual ATM
It is Christmas-time!!
“Now that’s some dirty money, right there.”
“What kind of thief steals money from a church and then hides it INSIDE the church?”
The thinking-outside-the-box kind? Seems pretty smart. If wonder if the thief is dead or something since the money has been holed up for almost 10 years.
I was Treasurer of a church for about two years. When the money was handled it was always two people — me and someone else. Hated that job. I’m not good at math, but it was a small church, they were desperate, and I had a pulse.
I can understand how it would be easy for a dishonest person to go rogue and do the wrong thing.
“he gets a cut?”
It wasn’t a “cut”, unless he was a/the thief. It was a Crimestoppers reward that the church had set up back when the crime happened, if I understand correctly. (Was the plumber connected to the church as a member in 2014? It would need interesting to know that.)
That’s an interesting theory.
Ah! If it was a posted reward that makes sense.
It would have been easy to take $10 or $15 dollars a week in cash from the plates.
Most of the cases that I have read that involve embezzlement involve just one person doing several of the steps in the process of receiving, counting, and depositing the cash with little or no oversight.
After I left the position of financial secretary, everything one done at the church with at least two people (not related) involved in the process.
Had it been only a few envelopes they thief could have saved the trouble of putting it behind the wall and just hidden underneath the bathroom stool.
Well, it seems to me that the kind of thief who would hide the money INSIDE the church is the kind of thief who has regular access to the INSIDE of the church, if you catch my drift.
Maybe it was insurance fraud...I’d check that out.
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