A South African pastor allegedly took several selfies while “visiting heaven” on Easter Sunday, but claims his phone was stolen after a public outcry for proof.

According to Patheos, Paseka Motsoeneng, or “Pastor Mboro,” said he “ascended to heaven “ for two weeks and took photos with his Samsung Galaxy S5. Upon returning to Earth, he promised to share the pictures, but for a price.

Mboro said to anyone who wanted to see the images, they must make a “pledge” of about $340 or 5,000 rand to his church. Following backlash from the public, he promoted the photos on Facebook and offered them up for free.

However on Tuesday, he said the phone was stolen at a local car wash.

“The pictures were really there, I saw them,” a bodyguard of Mboro’s said. “We suspect one of the boys washing the Prophet’s car took the phone. But they all denied taking it, even after we beat them them.”

According to Christian Today, the South African Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Communities intends to level extortion charges against the pastor.

“We are monitoring the heaven selfies – this is extortion and commercialization of religion. We are also going to issue him with a subpoena for the selfies,” said CRL chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva.

Dozens of memes spawned from Mboro’s wild assertions and many gave their own version of his photos.

In one picture, Pastor Mboro claims he took a selfie in Garden of Eden with the snake that tempted Eve! Yhoo! pic.twitter.com/mFZ6afMKUS — Dominic Chimhavi (@DChimhavi) April 9, 2016

Featured image via christianitymalaysia.com