Any Children Abducted at Disneyworld?

[snugglepeas]

I work for a department store and if a child goes missing, we call a special code over the speaker system(not a code adam) we have are own code and EVERY employee stops what they are doing and start to search, the cashies stop ringing people out and stand at the door stopping any and all people from leaving the store til the code is called off. so if a department store has such a extencive protocal for a missing child i would think Disneys would be 100 times more strict.

 

[BlindTyldak]

First of all, she was covered with a blanket, not a towel. It was cold when we were there and many, many children had blankets.

Second, as described to me by the police officer, the parents reported the child missing. She was sleeping in her stroller, and they turned their backs on her to watch the parade. When they turned around, they realized she was missing. People standing around them had seen the woman take the child and stroller, but didn't realize it wasn't the mother until the mother started looking for the child.

That day there were county police officers on scene, helicopters flying overhead, and they were stopping every car that left the parks to look inside and look in the trunk.

That's pretty interesting . . . when did this happen? If that was in fact an abduction then it would be on public police record and I know I'd be pretty curious to know for a fact if the other sites were wrong and there was in fact an abduction.

Did the CM the next day confirm that the child had been kidnapped? Ug, it's something I could almost see myself doing . . . standing in a parade line with a ton of strollers, all with kids with blankets, and not even thinking and grabbing the stroller in front of you, not reaizing the crowd had slowly edged you down a bit.

 

[gigi1313]

catherinesmom, i recall reading about that incident when it happened from another long-time disboards poster who was also at mgm that day... she had her trunk searched (if i remember correctly) and i believe it ended w/the child being found safely...
thanks for sharing a real life experience

 

[shyjade]

Since I'll be traveling to WDW alone with my DD (8) I thought about whether or not I should bring my cell phone with me to the parks "just in case" we get seperated. But then I realized if God forbid something should happen, there is a CM at any given spot within the parks to help both of us reunite.

When she was 4 she got seperated from our group at the Co. Fair and it was the worst 5-10 minutes (felt like an eternity) of my life. I searched frantically as did my sister and dad and each time I ran into them and saw they hadn't found her yet either my heart sank further. Fortunately she remembered what we've talked about from early on and she found an officer and told them she was lost. Minutes later I heard them page me on the intercom system. I hope to never go through that again!

Many years ago a co-worker's family visited WDW with their 3 kids. The youngest darted out in front of a moving car and was killed (age 2). For them, Disney certainly does not hold fond memories.

 

[princesspiglet]

Are most people really that naive and stupid to belieive these urban legends? This really irks me. If you would take the time to read snopes, you could plainly see:

In truth, no child has ever been kidnapped from a Disney theme park, and although the abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh led Wal-Mart to create their Code Adam protocol for locating missing children in their stores, Adam Walsh actually disappeared from a Sears outlet

And the "brownie" mom...please, she is an attention *****. Sounds like she went onto snopes and copied the story verbatim. IF there were ANY abductions at Disney there would be police reports filed. And guest what, there are no police reports filed...it's public knowledge. And how in the world would someone be able to drug a kid, change their clothes, and cut their hair (let alone dye it..which takes at least 20 mins) and remove them from a store or park in less than 10 minutes. Come on, common sense here people!!!

And yes, everyone knows someone who knows someone who saw someone or heard about an abduction...it's called gossip and rumors and attention seeking.

 

[mytwotinks]

I do not wantg to be flamed for this but here it goes. I own a dancing school and we often discuss disney world in the waiting room, since everyone knows i am obsessed an love to talk about it... anyways i do have a mom who was in disney with her family and her sisters family, they were in the MK and they both thought the other had the 2 year old, they frantically beeped each other on their 2 ways and no one had her, they did not know exactly how long she was missing but they knew it had to be about 10 minutes, the gates to the MK were NOT locked down, but they were taken to a security room inside the park and they were all told to look a the screens, (cameras all over the park) they said to look for her shoes... the dad spotted her with a man and a woman, heading for the gates (exit) they called security, they were stopped, the parents got their daughter back, new clothes on, baseball hat, and she had been given a shot to make her sleepy. This mom had no reason to make this story up, she was crying and said it was the worst day of her families life, she said that the disney security was excellent, but the first defense needs to come from the parents, just because it is "the happiest place on earth" doesn't mean that preditors will stay away, they are everywhere, and disney is basically a candy store for them, we lost our 6yo in epcot for 25 minutes and i thought i was going to die, if only we could sew their clothes to ours there. it only takes 1 second for our kids to wander off or dissapear, it takes a lot longer to find them, I love Disney, but dont be fooled into a false sense of security. sorry this is so long!

O.k. So did the mom tell you about going to trial because surely they would have had to testify at that woman's trial. That would have been on the national news.

 

[famofsix]

When we were at AK in April, some lady took the wrong rental stroller. The lady who's stroller it was ran up to her with three kids in tow. She started screaming at the lady who took the stroller. This agitated the lady who had the wrong stroller and she started screaming back about how the strollers were garbage. Meanwhile, one of the toddlers of the first screaming lady wandered away about 20 feet. I went up to the kid and told her to go back to her mom and then first screaming lady started looking around for her kid. Thankfully at this point, two CM's noticed the scuffle and called for security on the radio and talked to the lady. The lady calmed down but I couldn't help thinking that her child was put at risk over a stroller.

 

[MomPlanner22]

Not a Disney.. But, my younger daughter has Apraxia (a form of Autism) and she could utter a word until she was 3 1/2. When she was 2 1/2 we went to Hershey Park. When we were leaving the Dolphin show my wife and I got seperated and we each thought the other had her. We met up a couple of minutes and were in a panic about her being gone...We were with some friends and we all fanned out. We found her about 5-10minutes (although it felt like hours) later. She was a few hundred feet from where we were wandering. Worst feeling in the world...especially since she couldn't communicate.

Zip Bags,

My daughter also has Apraxia and I am concerned about this too. Do you place identification on your child(ren)? I am considering doing this and would welcome your opinion. Thanks!

 

[brymolmom]

This thread just had me asking (again) my almost 4 year old 'What do you do if you ever can't find Mommy or Daddy?' and he answered 'I find another mommy (with kids there) and ask her for help to find you'.

I'm not a huge believer in the 'not posting your kids name so it can be seen' - at least not at WDW. Maybe that would be more of a lure to a kid walking home from school or something...But, if you're around me (or a potential kidnapper is) and my family for any more than 30 seconds at the World - you'll hear their names as I say them over and over.... Also, I do let my kids talk to strangers if I'm right there so anyone behind us in line could say 'What's your name' (or how old are you, etc.) and I would encourage him to respond.

So - while I do fear for that matter of seconds that you can become separated from your child and that someone evil might be lurking to take advantage - I don't think it will be more so if they know his name.

ANyway- I'm a lot MORE concerned with a CM being able to identify my child and me and dh if we are separated - so I laminate nametags with names, cell phone # and where we're staying. I don't make them large enough to read from far away, but anyone nearby could.

 

[lclark0621]

I do not wantg to be flamed for this but here it goes. I own a dancing school and we often discuss disney world in the waiting room, since everyone knows i am obsessed an love to talk about it... anyways i do have a mom who was in disney with her family and her sisters family, they were in the MK and they both thought the other had the 2 year old, they frantically beeped each other on their 2 ways and no one had her, they did not know exactly how long she was missing but they knew it had to be about 10 minutes, the gates to the MK were NOT locked down, but they were taken to a security room inside the park and they were all told to look a the screens, (cameras all over the park) they said to look for her shoes... the dad spotted her with a man and a woman, heading for the gates (exit) they called security, they were stopped, the parents got their daughter back, new clothes on, baseball hat, and she had been given a shot to make her sleepy. This mom had no reason to make this story up, she was crying and said it was the worst day of her families life, she said that the disney security was excellent, but the first defense needs to come from the parents, just because it is "the happiest place on earth" doesn't mean that preditors will stay away, they are everywhere, and disney is basically a candy store for them, we lost our 6yo in epcot for 25 minutes and i thought i was going to die, if only we could sew their clothes to ours there. it only takes 1 second for our kids to wander off or dissapear, it takes a lot longer to find them, I love Disney, but dont be fooled into a false sense of security. sorry this is so long!

And did you know that if you eat Pop Rocks & drink soda, it will combine in your stomach & EXPLODE?

Seriously, I am not flamming. But come on! This is WORD for WORD a very well known urban legend.

If this did happen to your friend, there would have been news stories EVERYWHERE, all over the country! There would be police reports, a trial, etc, etc. Not to mention hospital stays for the child who was "drugged".

 

[luvmesometigger]

My son is 6 and every day, I go over and over our info with him. He knows all of our names, addresses and mine and DH's cell phone numbers. I have also told him whom to ask for help if he does get lost. And I told him if someone other then a CM takes his hand, he is to scream and carry on and yell "You are not my mom/dad!" He is a good kid and knows not to wander off but I can see how something would catch his eye and he would wander off and away from our group.

 

[Mortlives]

In some circles, it's very well known what Disney does to the people they find attempting to abduct children on their premises. There's a reason they never stand trial.

How's that for an urban legend?

 

[weeyore33]

i knew i would be flamed, and actually the little girl was in the hospital, it was benadryl that she was given and the "abductees" were arrested, the mom has since been to florida three times for trials, and not all kidnap attempts make the national news, heck when people die at WDW we dont always hear anything Disney doesnt want us to, maybe she did steal the story for attention, but if it makes us all pay alittle more attention to our little ones, then at least we can be happy that we will not make national news for our kids dissapearing, people are people, and there are good people and unfortunately bad people at disney too. I am not putting disney down and i feel a little hurt that you want to make fun of me, i was just passing on a story,

and that thing about pop rocks- i better tell my kids to stop eating them

 

[Ted and Holly]

I know I'll get flamed for this, but last October, I went to Epcot and by the end of the night, I felt drugged and all my money was abducted.

Oh wait, that was the Food and Wine Festival, nevermind.

Like others have said, abductions could happen anywhere. You might not see the total makeover type thing that the Snopes article quotes, but things can happen.

With your kids or your wallet, stay aware of your surroundings. WDW can be an overload of stimuli. Keep aware and you'll be fine.

Ted

 

[MsLeFever]

I have also told him whom to ask for help if he does get lost. And I told him if someone other then a CM takes his hand, he is to scream and carry on and yell "You are not my mom/dad!"

I tell my kids to yell the same thing. I also tell them that all rules about obeying adults are OFF if someone is trying to take them away from me. They can scream, bite, kick and hit.

 

[vellamint]

I know I'll get flamed for this, but last October, I went to Epcot and by the end of the night, I felt drugged and all my money was abducted.

Oh wait, that was the Food and Wine Festival, nevermind.


Ted

HAHAHAHAHAHA - Good one!!!

 

[tink1978]

I have never heard of this happening. Once when I was there, there was a lost child and they put out a kind of "Amber Alert". All the children being taken out of the park were being watched very carefully.

 

[tink too]

We have seen the response to a missing child at MK - before we were parents ourselves - and boy, was I impressed!

A dad was running around shouting out a girl's name and within seconds he was approached by a CM, then some more CM's, then Disney Security (in the distinctive purple outfit). We were just sitting on a bench people watching and soon there were "suits" in the area talking into their jacket lapels. We could hear them talking a little and it sounded like a military operation - sweeping the whole park until she was found. You could see the panic in that dad's face - I'll never forget that - but I will always remember the fast, efficient response by the WDW CM's!

We also encountered a woman getting aggitated while waiting for the night-time parade (also in MK) she was approached by two male guests who asked her what was wrong - she too had lost her daughter! They promised to help her by notifying CM's, etc and they asked for a description. Off she went - hair colour/style, eye colour, what clothing she was wearing and then got to her height. When these "knights in shining armour" questioned her about her daughters age, she said "22!" To which these gents replied that she was probably having another ride on Space Mountain before the parade began!

 

[sameyeyam]

My sister lives in Florida, she's not an overly cautious mother. But she won't even let her 3 high school age boys go to Disney World by themselves. That tells me something right there. Says she reads things in the paper all the time about things happening at WDW and that the crime rate is fairly high. I don't believe that I have ever heard her mention any child abductions though. But in reality it wouldn't surprise me. Pedophiles go where kids are - schools, churches, libraries, community centers, parks, etc... So it would not come as a surprise that they would want to be at WDW and be looking for children to abduct.

 

[jjarman]

i knew i would be flamed, and actually the little girl was in the hospital, it was benadryl that she was given and the "abductees" were arrested, the mom has since been to florida three times for trials, and not all kidnap attempts make the national news, heck when people die at WDW we dont always hear anything Disney doesnt want us to, maybe she did steal the story for attention, but if it makes us all pay alittle more attention to our little ones, then at least we can be happy that we will not make national news for our kids dissapearing, people are people, and there are good people and unfortunately bad people at disney too. I am not putting disney down and i feel a little hurt that you want to make fun of me, i was just passing on a story,

and that thing about pop rocks- i better tell my kids to stop eating them

No one was flaming you but I still find this very hard to believe. I know how the press can be and I find it hard to believe the passed on a story like this. I know people can be very convincing in their stories. I had a "friend" who had everyone in our community convinced she had cancer "again". She solicited all kinds of money from the churches and other friends. Come to find out she not only didn't have cancer again but never had cancer to begin with. She had us all fooled. I could tell other stories about this woman but this is not the forum. It is just safe to say that some people can be very convincing.