Any Children Abducted at Disneyworld?

[ozarkmom]

I'm sorry cutting and dyeing hair. Come on this takes a while and surely people are using these restrooms. I truly believe that the news media would have a field day with this. Back to this hair cutting and dyeing seriously thing you can't possibly believe this. Benadryl? If it even worked this takes a while too. This isn't a place you can snatch a child and get out fast think about it.

 

[scrapbookworm]

I do believe that if there were such an attempt at child abduction, it would be widely publicized BECAUSE of the previous efforts to debunk the myths. And there would be so many police there that many members of the DISboard would take notice and tell everyone, KWIM?

Hair dye is typically very strong smelling and messy. I would think that other people in the public restroom would smell something. And it would have to set a good 10-15 minutes for any sort of change, plus the washing the hair out in the sink. I haven't noticed if the handicap stalls have sinks in them.

Benadryl doesn't immediately make a child sleepy. At least not my child, LOL.

So by now to give the child Benadryl, cut and dye their hair, wash it out, change their clothes, I'm guessing a good 30-45 minutes would have passed with the child and abductor STILL IN THE PARK. Parents, CMs, security would have had time to start a thorough search.

And it's definitely a trek to get out of the park, onto a bus/monorail, and out of The World. If a child was abducted near the entrance, it might not be hard. But if it were back in Mickey's Toontown, it would be take a good 10-15 minutes at a brisk walk. Unless the abductor breaks into a run.

But like others have said, are you truly safe ANYWHERE? At least at DisneyWorld, the huge majority of park guests are caring parents like you who would be proactive in taking action. If I saw a lost child, or someone looking for a lost child, I would help. The huge majority of park guests are NOT pedophiles.

 

[sha_lyn]

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.

What types of crimes? Crimes occur at malls, schools etc all the time. Are they not allowed alone there either?




As for deaths at WDW not being reported. In Dec we were at Universal. When we were watching TV one AM they were reporting about a car accident with a fatality on Disney property.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

If anything, this thread will just make parents keep an EXTRA eye on their kiddos. As many have mentioned, you are not really safe ANYWHERE.

 

[tink1978]

I do believe that if there were such an attempt at child abduction, it would be widely publicized BECAUSE of the previous efforts to debunk the myths. And there would be so many police there that many members of the DISboard would take notice and tell everyone, KWIM?

Hair dye is typically very strong smelling and messy. I would think that other people in the public restroom would smell something. And it would have to set a good 10-15 minutes for any sort of change, plus the washing the hair out in the sink. I haven't noticed if the handicap stalls have sinks in them.

Benadryl doesn't immediately make a child sleepy. At least not my child, LOL.

So by now to give the child Benadryl, cut and dye their hair, wash it out, change their clothes, I'm guessing a good 30-45 minutes would have passed with the child and abductor STILL IN THE PARK. Parents, CMs, security would have had time to start a thorough search.

And it's definitely a trek to get out of the park, onto a bus/monorail, and out of The World. If a child was abducted near the entrance, it might not be hard. But if it were back in Mickey's Toontown, it would be take a good 10-15 minutes at a brisk walk. Unless the abductor breaks into a run.

But like others have said, are you truly safe ANYWHERE? At least at DisneyWorld, the huge majority of park guests are caring parents like you who would be proactive in taking action. If I saw a lost child, or someone looking for a lost child, I would help. The huge majority of park guests are NOT pedophiles.

I think that if there were an abduction, it would have to be publicized, especially if they got the child out of the park, since the nation has the 'Amber Alert" system in place. Disney is not going to not tell the police if a child has actually been abducted!

 

[SueM in MN]

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.

From quotes from Snopes website ragarding internet abduction hoaxes:

Variations:
Sometimes the intended victim is found abandoned in a bathroom, partially disguised (e.g., hair cut, clothing changed), or implements for altering the child's appearance (e.g., scissors, razor, hair dye, wig, clothing) are found in a bathroom stall.

Sometimes the kidnapper is caught attempting to escape through an exit with the disguised victim (often because the parent recognizes some detail of the child's clothing the kidnapper has neglected to alter, such as shoes).

The child is often found to have been drugged (to make it easier for the kidnapper to alter the child's appearance and smuggle him out an exit).

Although this warning is undeniably good advice, the legend that presents it exaggerates both the prevalence and manner of kidnappings. A child is far more likely to be snatched by a family member or ex-spouse in a custodial dispute than he is to be the victim of a random abduction. And rarely will kidnappers go through such elaborate procedures as the ones hinted at here -- luring a child outside where he can be quickly bundled into an automobile is far more effective and less risky than trying to smuggle one out the exit of a crowded public space. (The example presented above doesn't even make much practical sense. Why waste precious getaway time shaving a child's head -- with a razor, yet -- when you already have a wig to cover its natural hair?)

This type of tale that has been circulating for decades, always involving the kidnapping of children from family-type public places such as amusement parks and shopping centers. A kidnapper snatches a child away from an inattentive parent, drugs it, and hustles it into a restroom; there the abductor performs a quick haircut, dye job, and clothing change on the child to conceal its identity (and sometimes to obscure its gender) and wraps it in blankets before attemping to quickly and quietly spirit the child off the premises. Meanwhile, a vigilant security force has sealed off all the exits, and the attempted kidnapping is thwarted either because the kidnapper realizes he cannot escape undetected and simply abandons his intended victim in the bathroom, or because the child's parent is monitoring the exits (in person or via security cameras) and recognizes the child by its distinctive shoes, which the kidnapper has neglected to change or remove.

More malevolent versions of this story end not with the thwarting of the abduction attempt, but with the discovery of the child's original clothing on a restroom floor (along with other evidence of what had transpired, such as loose hair, scissors, and a bottle of hair dye). In these versions police tell the victims' parents they are powerless to recover their children (whom they warn are probably already on their way out of the country to be used as unwilling organ donors or sex slaves), and the parents are paid off to keep quiet about the abductions. Often the payoff for the parents' silence is claimed to be something absurdly small in value, such as free passes to the amusement park where the kidnapping took place, yet people continue to take the story at face value. Would you keep quiet about your child's disappearance for any amount of money, much less something as paltry as a few free tickets?

Since the details of urban legends tend to localize on the most prominent examples of their kind, this legend has become more and more associated with places such as Disney theme parks and Wal-Mart stores, both examples of well-known large facilities frequented by families with children, and both part of huge corporate enterprises. (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 no evidence was found to indicate that the abductor had made an effort to alter Adam's appearance.)

 

[slk537]

I am absolutely mortified that I am posting this here because it makes me sound like a total idiot, but if it makes anyone feel a little better...

On our last trip, I woke up at 4:30 on our first night in our one bedroom villa at VWL. I could have sworn I heard a door shut or DS crawling in the room or something. I got up to check on him (he was sleeping on the couch in the living room) and he wasn't there!!! I called his name several times and checked every inch of the room. DH got up and called for him and searched too. I was panicked! I went out on the balcony and he wasn't there...I was so panicked and fuzzy (4:30 am, remember) that I couldn't remember when I came back in if the door had been locked when I went out. We were on the 3rd floor and I was a mess.

We searched the closets, bathroom, bed, etc. DH told me to call the front desk and I did. I was crying and told them I couldn't find my son. She knew all my room information and I was transferred to security within seconds. All they had to hear was "I can't find my son!!" and he said "We'll be there immediately!".

I am very happy that I don't know how long it would have taken them - DH found DS "hiding" from him at the foot of the bed just under the bedskirt. I was back on the phone and she was cancelling security within 30 seconds of my call. I just wanted to post and let you know how immediate and serious WDW takes a missing child.

DS likes to hide from DH - you know the kind...he hides in plain sight, DH pretends not to see him and they have the game...however, after that night and seeing my reaction, DS will never, ever ever not come out when he's called again. I think he was more upset by how scared I was than I was.

 

[tjmw2727]

Our family loves to camp and I hear these same stories from very well meaning people when we mention our camping trips and how we love to camp. Same stories - different venue, yes its always a friend of a friend, my dd's friend from gymnastics, my neighbor etc. Same story as snopes and PP's with variations.

Ok - so MAYBE someone could get away with something at a campground where the "visits" are fewer but at WD? Have you ever been alone in a WDW park bathroom, I haven't? In fact most times there is a CM cleaning who would likely notice something involving dying and cutting a childs hair.

Now - if we are talking about teaching safety - do it!! Yes, lets teach them, I teach them and then I test them. When we are out we play the "what would you do right now game" just to keep them prepared and hopefully keep them from panicing. I ask them what they would do right this instant if we were separated and who if anyone would they ask for help. I also carry my cellphone all the time and both dd's know that number by heart. Make sure they can dial any type of telephone, cellphone is different than landlines and could they use a blackberry or other PDA if they had to?

Perhaps instead of focusing on the scare of the snopes stories we would start a thread with what we do to teach our kids and help keep them safe?

TJ

 

[minnie61650]

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.

Pedophiles are everywhere and yes we must always guard our young children against them.

However I think your sis may be more worried about her teen age boys going to Pleasure Island and some of the things that can happen there than about child abducters.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[weeyore33]

i never mentoned cutting or dying hair, if the story is falso so be it, but it convinced me that anything can happen anywhere, i think most of us see disney thru rose colored glasses, and think nothing bad could ever happen there, it can and does, and disney has enough power and money to let us know what they want us to know, they are a corporation, and corporate law is different than public. I love Disney world as much and maybe more than most, but please, i was only relaying a message. Both of my sons have been missing, one at Epcot and the other at the POLY and I have seen first hand how quickly and efficiently the DIsney security team works. I am very thankful that both of my sons were found, 6 yo followed "dad" out of mousegears-but it wasnt dad, jut another guy with a disney shirt on the sam as daddys-imagine that? and ds11 returned to the wrong room, latch was on door he went right in and made himself comfy, watching tv, laying on bed (never noticing the room was filled with "princess" toys) the poly shut down, the gates were closed , the busses, the monorail, we searched for 1/2 an hour, i was convinced he was gone forever... he fianlly heard his name being screamed and he came to the sliding doors and was like"whiy is everyone yelling for me?" THIS IS NO LEGEND< this was real life, i felt like i had swallowed my tongue- whenever i see a child alone and crying i always alert the closest cm, i feel for that child and parents- keep em close, and i am sorry if i have caused drama-

 

[sha_lyn]

, but it convinced me that anything can happen anywhere, i think most of us see disney thru rose colored glasses, and think nothing bad could ever happen there, it can and does, and disney has enough power and money to let us know what they want us to know, they are a corporation, and corporate law is different than public.

Arrest/reported crimes are public record. WDW can not stop them from becoming such.
Also as said before, if a child was successfully abducted then a nation wide Amber alert would be made.

Disney is not going to not tell the police if a child has actually been abducted!

Even if Disney did try to avoid reporting it, the parents certainly would.

 

[phamton]

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.

In real life I don't go around gleefully bursting peoples' thought
balloons, telling little kids that Santa doesn't exist or loudly
exclaiming that pro wrestling is probably fake.

"Harmless little stories" can morph into/create very nasty little
legacies and the way that snopes treats things with the write-ups is quite
reasonable. Read the articles, look at the sources he uses, and use common sense to see if something is reasonable or not.

Many people use the excuse: "I'm trying to pass on important information, and even it if isn't true, it doesn't hurt to pass it on just IN CASE it is." Actually it does hurt, it hurts Disney and it causes fear when it isn't necessary. I know a little bit about how the themeparks handle lost children reports having worked in that area. Having the parents look at a monitor for shoes is not part of the protocol.

 

[weeyore33]

Arrest/reported crimes are public record. WDW can not stop them from becoming such.
Also as said before, if a child was successfully abducted then a nation wide Amber alert would be made.

Even if Disney did try to avoid reporting it, the parents certainly would.

i think we all are taking this way too personal, the mom at my school, weather looking for attention, or God forbid was telling the truth, never claimed her child was successfully abducted, it was an attempt, and my comment was meant to say that Disney has many incidents everyday, but we do not always hear about them.

 

[Disneyrsh]

When I was in second grade, in Taunton, Massachusetts, 1977, I was let off the bus last, by myself, at the entrance to my cul de sac. There was a man in a red and white convertible behind the bus. The bus pulled away and the man drove up to me and asked if he could drive me to my house. I said no, I was fine. He then became insistent and said he had to drive me to my house.

I have a very clear memory of thinking something wasn't right here, and went instead to the first house in the cul de sac (I have no idea who they were) and went in their front door (nobody locked their doors in those days) walked through her house, cut through the backyard to get to my own house.

Never mentioned it to anyone. My mother totally freaked out the first time I told her about it as an adult-when the memory actually had relevance for me as a parent.

Do I keep an eagle eye on my own daughters? You bet I do. Do I forward those stupid kidnap stories?

No way.

My dad worked at Disney for a while and he said they never lost a kid, and I believe him.

When we're there I am definitely a little more relaxed about watching them, because I feel like it is one of the few places on earth we CAN relax.

 

[BlindTyldak]

i think we all are taking this way too personal, the mom at my school, weather looking for attention, or God forbid was telling the truth, never claimed her child was successfully abducted, it was an attempt, and my comment was meant to say that Disney has many incidents everyday, but we do not always hear about them.

We're not flaming you, weeyore, we're just saying your mom at school is busted. She's attributing an urban legend to herself. The attempt would not have to be successful for it to be public record and SOMEONE would have pointed out the court records to Snopes by now that there was an attempted abduction that went so close to the urban legend recently. This really doesn't sound like a whether/or, this is like "mom's lying". And like someone said, trying to back up this type of thing like it COULD be true just causes people to panic and spread false rumors even more. Yes, parents need to be careful. But spreading horror stories as a "this is why, it MIGHT be true" isn't going to help.

I know what you're saying, Disney doesn't tell everything. But there are certain things that they HAVE to tell, and this is one of them.

 

[sha_lyn]

and my comment was meant to say that Disney has many incidents everyday, but we do not always hear about them.

The thing is we do not know that Disney has many incidents of attempted kidnappings every day. If an attempted kidnapper was caught, there would be a public record of their arrest, arraignment, and trial or plea bargain. Disney can not stop these from becoming public record.

 

[weeyore33]

The thing is we do not know that Disney has many incidents of attempted kidnappings every day. If an attempted kidnapper was caught, there would be a public record of their arrest, arraignment, and trial or plea bargain. Disney can not stop these from becoming public record.

once again, i did not say kidnapping, that is your word, i do have friends that work for Disney or "the ratt" as they call it, and whatever you want to believe is fine, but i did say "incidents" not kidnapping. But do we hear of shoplifting, or broken bones, or near drownings or fighting, or firworks mishaps, my comment was , we do not always hear everythig, i agree if there were a successful kidnapping i am sure we would all know.

 

[OKWAnneMarie]

Did she say what happened to the people who attempted the kidnapping? How long they had to stay in Orlando for the trial? How long they were in the hospital with their daughter to see what kind of shot she was given?

Again, not flaming you, but I've got a real good reason for that mom to lie . . . attention hound.

Absoultey an ATTENTION HOUND. Next time she is "crying" why don't you ask her what jail the kidnappers are in. People are so naive.

 

[weeyore33]

Absoultey an ATTENTION HOUND. Next time she is "crying" why don't you ask her what jail the kidnappers are in. People are so naive.

in people are you referring to those of us who feel compassionate when someone is crying? whatever, what goes around comes around and if she keeps crying wolf then one day the wolf will be there. i don't consider mysefl naive, but i do consider myself to be a listener, a shoulder, a friend, i also feel a little defensive at the moment.

 

[madalex]

i never mentoned cutting or dying hair, if the story is falso so be it, but it convinced me that anything can happen anywhere, i think most of us see disney thru rose colored glasses, and think nothing bad could ever happen there, it can and does, and disney has enough power and money to let us know what they want us to know, they are a corporation, and corporate law is different than public.

Disney is one of the most well known and scruitinzed companies on the planet and gets tons of bad press. You think if they had all the "power and money" to be able to stop that bad press, they would. That certainly applies to a child abduction in the manner which you described in your original post - if it had really happened, the press would be all over it.