Plumber who found cash in Osteen’s church wall is rewarded $20K

A plumber who discovered cash and checks hidden in a toilet wall while doing maintenance work at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston — possibly helping solve a $600,000 burglary at the congregation seven years ago — received a $20,000 reward Tuesday for his find.

The plumber, identified by local media as Justin Cauley, was given a $20,000 gift by Crime Stoppers of Houston for finding about 500 envelopes of cash and checks last month, the nonprofit’s CEO, Rania Mankarious, told The Washington Post.

The reward came less than a week after Cauley called in to a Houston radio morning show to reveal how he found the envelopes while working on a bathroom wall at Lakewood Church, led by Osteen and wife Victoria.

“My heart stopped, needless to say,”cauley told KPRC in his first on-camera interview.“i had no clue that would come about.”

The gift to Cauley was most of the $25,000 reward offered by Crime Stoppers in 2014 after Lakewood reported the loss of more than $600,000 in a burglary. The $20,000 was initially put forth by Lakewood to help Crime Stoppers assist in the search and was later given as a donation to the nonprofit when the statute of limitations on the reward had expired, Mankarious said.

Even though the statute of limitations had run out, Mankarious told The Post, the nonprofit was compelled to give the gift to Cauley, whose story drew national attention, after the Houston Police Department announced that the cash, checks and money orders found last month in the toilet wall appear to be connected to the 2014 burglary.