Plumber says he found cash tied to Lakewood Church theft

The man on a Houston radio call-in show told a story of finding money in the wall of building where he was doing plumbing repair. He’d found hundreds of envelopes, he said, some stuffed with cash. A lot of cash.

The building, it turns out, was Lakewood Church. The man said he discovered in November about 500 envelopes stashed behind bathroom tile and insulation. He also said he suspected the money was tied to an unsolved heist at the megachurch from years ago.

“I think it was about 4 weeks ago I was doing some plumbing work at the Lakewood Church and I discovered money in the wall that was stolen back in 2014,” the caller, identified as Justin, said Thursday morning on Houston’s country music station 100.3 The Bull.

George Lindsey, one of the onair personalities, responded: “Whoa, wait what do you mean? How much money?”

Justin responded, referencing the $600,000 worth of checks and cash that thieves reportedly stole from a safe at the church more than seven years ago.

Justin said he contacted the maintenance supervisor on site and turned it in.

“I’m an honest man,” he said on-air.

Church spokeswoman Andrea Davis said at the time the church was staffed around the clock by security guards, one of whom — an off-duty Harris County sheriff’s deputy — was present when the 2014 theft was discovered. Police said they were scrutinizing security footage but they never made any arrest in the theft. Authorities did not disclose how the safe was opened.

Houston police on Friday evening confirmed the discovery at the megachurch appears to be connected to the crime.

“Evidence from the recovered checks suggests this November case connected to a March 9, 2014, theft report of undisclosed amounts of money at the church,” the statement read.

Officials said the money was found during a renovation project, and was inventoried, documented and left in the custody of Lakewood Church since it was property found on the premises.

Representatives from Lakewood Church acknowledged the discovery in 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. Lakewood has no further comment at this time.”

William Venable II, a financial secretary and treasurer with the Plumbers Local Union 68 serving Houston, said it’s not unusual to find things behind walls containing electrical wire, HVAC and pipes.

“Realistically sometimes it depends on the insulation, but a lot of times in a commercial restroom we call it a chase wall, sometimes they can be 6 inches, it can be 18 inches of not really walking space, but the carriers are pretty wide.”

In his decades of experience, which includes plumbing work on both Houston airports and large area hospitals, he said he’s heard

of plumbers finding a variety of things behind those chase walls. It’s typically Coke and Dr Pepper cans.

“The guys that do the remodel would see more of that,” he said. “We would find old cigarette packs, old magazines, old beer bottles.” But he hasn’t heard of of money being found before.

Another on-air personality, Erik Scott Smith, said the call came within the 7 a.m. hour of their morning show, which airs from 5:30 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. The crew discusses “phoner topics,” where they ask the audience generic questions that often generate funny, interesting answers.

During the segment, he and co-hosts Lindsey and Monica “Mo” Lunsford were discussing the story of a Dallas man who was proposing to his girlfriend at the AT&T stadium and dropped the ring in the adjacent fountain, and asked listeners to share things they recently found of value.

“Some people found $100, another person found a lost child at Disney World,” he said, but nothing like the Lakewood discovery, which has attracted national attention.

“We were absolutely floored,” Smith said.

“We overlook Lakewood so to know that that happened right down the street and to know that it all came together in the weirdest way. We didn’t know what to think. It felt like we were dreaming.”

The Audacy Inc.-owned FM radio station airs a country music radio format and has studios and offices in Greenway Plaza less than a half-mile from Lakewood Church.

The station provided Hearst Newspapers with the audio of the call.