Megabucks Stolen from Megachurch

When the weekend collections are stolen from a church, it rarely makes the news, but when that church is Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, TX, and the amount stolen was over a half million dollars, it does.

A spokesman for the Houston Police Department confirmed to the media today that the church reported the theft of $200,000 in cash and $400,000, in checks and written credit card information, were stolen from the church’s safe  sometime. Apparently the cash, checks and other info was tallied up and put in the safe after Sunday services. A church employee discovered the theft Monday morning. .

All of this money was collected from the congregation on March 8th and 9th, and Lakewood put a statement on its website, advising anyone who donated money at service on those two days in the form of a check, or who wrote down their credit card information and turned it over in an envelopes, to carefully monitor their accounts.

The statement assured its members that there had been no electronic data breach, and did not affect anyone who had utilized a drop box to make a contribution, or made contributions electronically. The statement also said: “We are working with the police to fully investigate the incident. The funds were fully insured, and we are working with our insurance company to restore the stolen funds to the church.”

The police and the church declined to make any further comment so as not to compromise the investigation into the theft.