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Plumber Finds £491k Of Stolen Cash In Church Wall. Hands It In But Wants A Reward

Posted: Monday, December 6th, 2021

A plumber who uncovered a serious amount of cash in envelopes hidden behind a wall in a US megachurch has handed it all in but believes he should be entitled to a reward for his honest actions.

The discovery was made at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, and authorities believe the discovery could be linked to a 2014 unsolved case at the church where an estimated US$600,000 (£491,000) in cash was stolen.

After being called out to fix a loose toilet, the plumber, who has asked to remain anonymous, was shocked to find hundreds of envelopes full of cash had been stashed in the wall and began to pour out through the hole he had made.

“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!’”

In total more than 3,000 envelopes full of cash were found behind the toilet.

Despite the temptation, the honest tradesman decided to alert his supervisor and turn the money in, believing there may be a reward for his actions.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that will happen.

As reported by WAGMTV, at the time of the theft, Crime Stoppers offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. No arrests have so far been made in the 2014 case and because of the expired statute of limitations on this particular felony theft case, the man will not get any money from Crime Stoppers, said Nichole Christoph, deputy director of Crime Stoppers of Houston.

“That doesn’t preclude Lakewood from giving him a reward or a combination from HPD congratulating him on doing the right thing, but unfortunately Crime Stoppers is out of the picture at that point,” Christoph said.

“I feel like I should get something,” the plumber said. “I feel like some type of reward should get offered to me.”

Would you turn in the money or take a few envelopes yourself?

(H/T WAGMTV)

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