Metro
Plumber returns lost $600k in Joel Osteen’s church gets $20K reward
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A plumber who found cash and checks in the wall of Joel Osteen‘s Lakewood Church has reportedly received $20,000 from Crimestoppers.
ABC7 reports that the plumber, who is only known as “Justin,” was declared a “Good Samaritan” by Crimestoppers and given the reward. He found the money on November 10 while doing repair work at the Houston church.
The discovery came seven years after the church reported that $600,000 in cash and checks were stolen from a safe in 2014 between March 9 and March 10.
Police were investigating whether the money found in the wall was connected to the money that was stolen.
According to ABC7, the stolen funds were fully insured and some of that money has since been paid back to the insurance company.
At the time of the theft, Lakewood Church gave Crime Stoppers $20,000 to offer as a potential reward for information in the case. By 2016, Lakewood decided to shift that supplemental reward into a charitable donation to Crime Stoppers of Houston in support of its ongoing public safety work in Houston and beyond.
Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious confirmed the good samaritan has been gifted the fund.
“Crime Stoppers of Houston is a public safety organization that thrives on the public safety of all communities. We believe that it takes all of us, working together, to keep Houston safe and thriving. In 2014, Lakewood Church gave us $20,000 to work on this case. In 2016, they chose to gift us those funds for operations. Today, we are gifting that same amount of money to this Good Samaritan and wishing he and his family a wonderful holiday season,” said Mankarious.