Have you ever had anything stolen at Disney World?

[jeffbear]

After roughly 15 trips to WDW, we finally had something stolen on my family's last trip down in May of this year. We got sloppy and left a bag full of shopping (and one of my favorite caps) at a table outside Roaring Fork at WL when all four of us needed the restroom at the same time. In the 3-4 minutes it took for my son and I to return, that bag was well and truly gone. I guess it's a good think neither of our ladies left their purses like that.

So ... don't leave shopping bags laying around, duh. And it's kind of amazing that it took so many trips to one of the most crowded resorts in the world before something got swiped. I mean, seriously.

 

[ZenDaisy]

I had a bottle of very important prescription medication I took with meals. I apparently got distracted and forgot to put it back in my bag after visiting the Rainforest Café by AK. I called a few minutes after leaving the restaurant, and was told no one found it. DH figured that the person clearing the table may have taken it, looked it up to see if it had any "fun" properties (it didn't, it was a pregnancy medication) and then possibly chucked it. On the other hand, in retrospect I might be nervous about taking medication that may have been tampered with by strangers, so maybe they just threw it out per policy? I don't know; either way, it's not really a stolen issue.

OTOH another time I left my wallet with everything in it in a locked safe when we checked out. I got it sent back to me priority mail, cash and everything intact.

We did have unauthorized charges to our CC last trip for Florida gas stations after we were already home. I don't know how they pulled that off because it said there was a credit card SWIPE, but we had both DH's and my cards in our possession back in our home state. CC company refunded us regardless and replaced our cards.

 

[Toffeewoffy]

I refused to give Disney my CC number to charge things back to our room with. I take only one card to the US with me (OH doesn't take anything at all - which is a whole other story), and only use it to pay for large shops (eg Walmart or a large purchase at an Outlet store).

Most of our CCs and charge cards over here in the UK are scannable now, and I bought a pack of 4 sets of cards you put in your wallet or purse to protect all your cards from chancers. I've heard stories that it takes as little as one person to walk through a crowded commuter train in the morning or evening and he/she can skim off hundreds of card details in seconds.

We've never had anything stolen from any hotel room we've ever stayed in - I guess we've just been lucky. I will say, though, that the safes in the walls at CBR are too small to be of much use. I was able to put my UK purse, iPad mini and Kindle into the safe, but nothing else would fit in there as it wasn't large enough for our laptops or deep enough to put my bridge camera in. We kept our laptops on the table in the room, both plugged in. I worked on the basis that a full size laptop is a little big to be slipped out of sight and stolen! This year I didn't use a CC at all: we were on site with the DDP and I just had about $600 cash - which stayed with me at all times when we were out of the room. I paid all tips, shopping etc with the cash so my CC never saw the light of day.

I presume it's the same in the US, but it's very easy to buy stuff on line if you have the details on the front of the card - but without the 3-digit security code on the back you won't get very far with a lot of places.

 

[Pocahottie]

Yep! I think it was back in 2011 when I brought my two little sisters with my then DBF to WDW. First day of the trip, we get on Space Mountain and my sister isn't able to fit her zippered backpack into the holding slot and I guessed she just decided to slip it under her feet. I wish I had known she was going to do that because I would have held it myself if that were the case...

Of course it falls out and we immediately contact the first CM out of the ride. They say we would have to wait until tonight when they close down and clean up the ride.

We end up missing the phone call the next morning for its pick up and its get sent all the way home to Canada while we were still stay for another week. My poor sister felt bad, knowing there went her id, camera, cash and other things.

I ended up getting her a disney gift card for the rest of the trip and thankfully she liked the light feel of no bag.

The problem was when she got home and got her bag in the mail. Her unused signature book and camera were still there (though the camera now broken from the delightful fall it had taken) but her ID and cash were now nowhere to be seen from her zippered bag.

We of course told Disney but were given no real answer to what had happened.

Nothing else we could really do after that. Probably another ____ ____ (my sister's name) now running around Orlando... Yikes!

 

[NorthernGrl]

Not a stolen item per say, but my daughter left her bag at Pecos Bill's in September.
It was a small quilted cross-body bag that I sewed for her as a Christmas gift.
There wasn't much in it. Just things that a 7 year old treasures: a second-hand wallet, a few dollars in mixed change (Canadian and US), a chapstick, a notebook and pencil.
When we realized it was gone, we went back, but it wasn't there and no cast member had seen it. We made a report and called many times during and after our trip. It was a sad lesson to be learned. She asked over and over why someone would find her purse and take it home instead of returning it.

 

[Love Tink]

I've always found it strange that people don't rent lockers. I don't like leaving things unattended next to the resort pool, let alone the waterpark pool!

Locker rental costs $10 a day. And it's a hassle walking all the way back to the lockers.

I don't find the money or the time and effort worth it to protect my hotel towels and paperback book. I don't bring electronics or cash into the park.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Yes, this past trip was our first time we had something stolen (after over 50 trips). I went to the restroom and told our group, watch my backpack. When I came out, my husband had moved the stroller because some boys were tossing a full water bottle as a football and it kept coming dangerously close to the sleeping baby. My son asked him if he got the backpack and he said yes, but he had gotten my son's not mine, which we didn't discover until almost 2 hours later, when we got ready to leave the park. The backpack contained all the items my DGD had just gotten from the Wonderland Tea Party, along with the beautiful fresh flowers she happily presented us with and we had stuck in the front laces of the backpack. Also both of our Encyclopedia of Animated Characters that we had painstakenly gotten almost every princess and character autograph in, her Nightmare Sally doll, and our camera. I called every day for 3 weeks, then a couple of random calls last week, and have finally given up. I am right now selecting pictures from our Memory Maker, and have carefully cut out every picture with the books and the flowers, to I may go back and add a picture of the flowers. She was so happy to present them to us, but I find it painful to see. The little ones do not know about the theft and we sent them on to HS while we waited for hours for the MK to close and see if anyone turned it in. It pretty much bummed out our whole day plus the rest of the party missed 2 of their 3 fps at HS because we were searching for the backpack. We asked a person working at a nearby kiosk if she saw anyone and she told us that she saw security pick it up, but it was never turned in.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Not a stolen item per say, but my daughter left her bag at Pecos Bill's in September.
It was a small quilted cross-body bag that I sewed for her as a Christmas gift.
There wasn't much in it. Just things that a 7 year old treasures: a second-hand wallet, a few dollars in mixed change (Canadian and US), a chapstick, a notebook and pencil.
When we realized it was gone, we went back, but it wasn't there and no cast member had seen it. We made a report and called many times during and after our trip. It was a sad lesson to be learned. She asked over and over why someone would find her purse and take it home instead of returning it.

Our loss occurred outside of Pecos Bill Cafe as well.

 

[bdcp]

We've never lost or had anything stolen on a vacation of any kind. I'm always very careful. We don't lock up laptops, but they are password protected. I'm obsessive about making sure our safe is closed and locked. Disney is no different than anywhere else. We also carry very little into the parks. I've seen things left behind before, but usually the owner comes back before long to reclaim them. I have found cell phones a couple of times in bathrooms and always turn them in.

 

[WalesAndy]

Thank goodness, no!

 

[disfan888]

nope nothing so far.

 

[Trekkie]

No.

And I leave iPads, and laptops, and digital cameras, and Mom's prescriptions (including her Sched 2 painkillers, which I certainly assume are worth money) all out, in the room. (Well, if somebody had taken some of the pills, but left the bottle, I assume I wouldn't have noticed.)

I even once left a $20 bill on the night stand, as a tip for housekeeping. (The room had a lot more mess than usual.) And it was still there, when I came back, to a clean room.

 

[Aurora0427]

My dad had his golf clubs stolen at the Grand Floridian. They were stolen out of wherever they store the golf clubs. He had to file a claim with Disney and they did reimburse him.

Interesting tidbit..... Fast forward a few years and he's searching online for a left handed putter. He finds one on ebay that looks just like the one that was stolen. He buys it. It actually was his putter- there was some kind of chip on it from when my dad last played with the club and this club had the exact same damage, which is how he knew it was the same club.

This happened in 2000 and he still tells this story. But he now keeps his clubs in his hotel room!

 

[Cmaben]

This still truly sickens me. On our trip in 11/2013 we stayed one night at SS in a 1BDRM to get our trip started. On the morning of check out (which let me remind is just one night) someone came in our room just before 8am. I heard the door and then laid there waiting to here "housekeeping" but never heard anything so I jumped up and came out if the room and they were gone. Fast forward a few hours and we check out and move to where we are staying the rest of the trip and while unpacking I notice the video camera was gone. I called right away hoping we had left in room. Of course they say no. I then proceed to call every lost and found literally across the nation that we may have contacted, not wanting to believe the worst. I knew with every piece of me that I had taken it out of the bag and set on the edge of the kitchen counter when we first arrived, specifically thinking I wouldn't be taking video that first day. I kept calling back to lost and found, reported it to police. Nothing...weeks after we were home I got contacted by Disney loss prevention and I was so hopeful, they said it was odd to have someone come in the room that early on the day of checkout and they would do a key card study, well they did and low and behold the cast member denied seeing or taking it so that was that. They said they are not responsible for "lost" items and dropped it. I could care less about the camera. I am totally responsible for the fact that I had 3 years of video on the hard drive that I had not transferred...so everything in our lives from the time my boys were 2/4 until that day...trips, birthdays, Jedi fun, worst was my recently passed grandma. Sorry for the long rant, I still search the sites once a month hoping for a miracle.

 

[BagOLaughs]

I think Disney is the same as any public place you've got to be so careful. I have a friend who is a copper (policeman) and seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to catching people shop lifting and pick pocketing. We were at Typhoon Lagoon and I'd gone for a swim, when I came back he was watching something over by some sun beds. I asked what was up and he said he thinks he just saw someone steal some sunglasses off a families bed. When the family came back he went over and asked he if they were missing something, they had a look around and sure enough they said their sunglasses had been stolen.

The park was closing and my mate reported it to a CM. The security guys came over and asked us if we would mind waiting and watching the crowd to see if he could identify the thieves. Sure enough he spots them and points them out. The security grabbed them (a very drunk bloke and woman) and took them backstage. We went too and my friend had to fill out a statement to say what he saw. In the couples bag they found loads of sunglasses, camera and a DS console. The family got their sunglasses back and another family that was there, their young boy got his DS back.

I couldn't believe my friend, he really is amazing! And for our troubles Disney gave us all $50 gift cards, although it was no trouble at all, we'd do the same in the same situation.

It just goes to show you've got to be aware of your valuables and surroundings!

 

[WEDWDW]

My heart.

 

[nilla]

I saw a duck steal a mouse's magic hat in the Magic Kingdom.

 

[minnie mum]

I saw a duck steal a mouse's magic hat in the Magic Kingdom.

It's not the ducks that are the problem. There is an organized street gang that has been stealing from parked strollers for years now. They call themselves the Squirrlz.

 

[nilla]

It's not the ducks that are the problem. There is an organized street gang that has been stealing from parked strollers for years now. They call themselves the Squirrlz.

It's not just strollers. We had one of their members harassing us at the pool at CSR!

 

[Deranged Hermit]

No, but I stopped a theft on our last trip. Family next to us had a expensive looking camera hanging on the back of the dad's chair. When dad got up to throw his trash away, someone swooped in and plucked the camera from the seat. I happened to be right there as it happened, got in front of the gentleman and said, 'now I don't think you're displaying the proper Disney spirit' as I grabbed the camera from his hands.
Ha ran (not sure if they caught him), but I returned the camera to the rightful owner.