TEXAS
Houston Chronicle
By Craig Hlavaty | March 11, 2014 | Updated: March 11, 2014
A grand total of $600,000 in cash and checks – along with written credit card information – was stolen from Houston’s Lakewood Church on Sunday, according to a statement that church leaders emailed to the church’s members on Monday.
Someone allegedly broke into the church’s safe Sunday evening, which was discovered by an employee Monday morning, taking cash, checks and envelopes containing written credit card information with them.
Joel Osteen’s mega church sent the note to members of the church to alert them that funds contributed on March 8 and 9 were taken. Lakewood encouraged those who made contributions to the church on those days to monitor their accounts closely for fraud and to notify their financial institutions if they see anything out of sorts.
The statement reiterated that this was not an electronic data breach, and was only limited to donations made during those services. Further, if a church member put their offering in a drop box, gave online or through other electronic means, they are not affected.
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