Plumber finds 500 envelopes full of checks, cash inside church bathroom

A plumber found 500 envelopes full of cash and checks inside the bathroom of the Houston, Texas, church of celebrity pastor Joel Osteen.

A plumber said that he found the money lodged behind a toilet while he was doing work in the bathroom of Osteen’s Lakewood Church on Nov. 10, according to Click2Houston.com. The plumber, who was not named during a call with radio station 100.3 The Bull, said that he noticed a loose toilet in the wall and they took off the tile.

There, underneath the loosened tile, was the stash of cash and checks.  

“There was a loose toilet in the wall and we removed the tilewell then removed the tile,” he said, according to the Houston outlet. “I went to go remove the toilet and I moved some insulation away and about 500 envelopes fell out of the wall.”

A representative at Lakewood Church told the outlet that a large number of envelopes had been found in the building. 

It’s unclear how much money was in the hidden stash, but the church issued a statement explaining they alerted the Houston Police Department about the find, which is investigating the incident.

The news follows a 2014 incident at Lakewood Church, when $600,000 was reported missing from a church safe.

The Hill has reached out to Lakewood Church and the Houston Police Department.