'Are you OK hun?' Britain's Got Talent viewers urge Simon Cowell to 'drink water' after straight-talking judge loses his voice during live final Molly-Mae Hague shows off her incredible figure in a plunging white bikini as she poses for sizzling snaps on the beach in Barbados The controversial celebrity pastor recently returned $4.4 million in federal COVID relief loans his megachurch received from the government.

He is often criticized for preaching that wealth is a sign of God's favor. Osteen, 58, the televangelist megachurch pastor, is estimated to be worth $50 million. Lakewood now welcomes about 52,000 attendees across multiple services per week, and its services are streamed worldwide. '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!''Ĭauley told the radio show that he informed the church's supervisors and was made to wait at the church for almost seven hours after his discovery.Īt the time of the church’s theft in 2014, it had a weekly attendance of about 43,500 parishioners. 'There was a loose toilet in the wall, and we removed the tile,' he said during the call last Thursday morning. Now we gotta go find who the real culprit is in this case,’ he said in a statement.Ĭauley first went public after the discovery by calling into a Houston radio morning 100.3 The Bull show to explain what happened. ‘In this particular case, at least we got some semblance of finality. It’s a bit of a blessing,’ Cauley said after being gifted the reward ‘I’ve been running Crime Stoppers since 2013, been with the organization since 2006 and I’ve never seen anything lick this,’ Mankarious told Click2Houston.Īndy Khan, an employee of Crime Stoppers, said that the agency will refocus on the investigation to determine how the money got into the bathroom walls and who hid it there. Today, we are gifting that same about of money to this Good Samaritan and wishing he and his family a wonderful holiday season,' she added. In 2016, they chose to gift us those funds for operations.

‘In 2014, Lakewood Church gave us $20,000 to work on this case. We believe that it takes all of us, working together, to keep Houston safe and thriving,’ Crime Stoppers CEO Rania Mankarious said in a press release announcing the donation. 'Crime Stoppers of Houston is a public safety organization that thrives on the public safety of all communities. Donation funds are fully insured, so Lakewood Church did not lose out on the money at the time - but the case is still open. In addition to cash, the thieves took Lakewood Church's checks and deposit slips that listed parishioners' credit card information.Īn employee had discovered the break-in on the Monday morning following Lent. The $600,000 was stolen in 2014 from a portion of donations made on one weekend of services, which an employee discovered the Monday after Lent. We are appreciative of the plumber, and we hope he pays the gift forward,' the church said in a statement on Tuesday.Ībove is the $20,000 check Crime Stoppers of Houston gifted to CauleyĬauley told Click2Houston that he intends to ‘pay it forward’ by donating a portion of the money back to Crime Stoppers of Houston and another portion to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. 'In 2016, Lakewood Church made a $20,000 charitable donation to Crime Stoppers of Houston to help solve this case and support them for all they do for the community. It’s a bit of a blessing,’ he told Click2Houston.Ī Facebook page listed as a plumber from Houston named ‘Justin Cauley’ shows photos of him with a woman and two babies.Ĭrime Stoppers of Houston offered a $5,000 reward for anyone with information in the case and, two years later, Lakewood donated $20,000 to Crime Stoppers to progress the investigation, as there were still no leads into what happened. Bills are stacking up, work is starting to get slow … This money is gonna help tremendously.

I had no clue that that call would come about. Just days after his statement, however, Crime Stoppers of Houston – which has been investigating the stolen funds since 2014 – reached out to offer him a $20,000 reward. Cauley was fixing a toilet at America’s largest church on November 10 when he removed a tile behind the appliance

Plumber finds money in church wall