Anyone ever had a stroller stolen at the parks?

[t_catt11]

For what it's worth, we purchased a Babby Jogger Citi Mini double for our last trip to WDW. $400+, and yes, we worried - I purchased a cable bicycle lock and took it with us.

We played with the lock once or twice, but it was more extra hassle than we needed. Our stroller was moved once or twice, but that was it.

Interestingly, we discovered upon a rrival that there were quite a few bright orange strollers just like ours - it turns out that this was the model that Orlando Stroller Rentals uses. It's an EXCELLENT stroler - easy to control, roomy, and reasonably light for a large double.

Keep your cameras and orther valuables on you, and realize that yes, people may well steal a stroller - but MOST WDW visitors who would use a stroller are parents like you, who would never think of doing such a thing. Sure, it can happen, but odds are very much that it will not.

 

[SnipsNSnails]

It's never happened to us, but I'm sure it does happen occasionally. I have a Contours Options which is bright red. It's about $120, and not one that I see often so it's not that easy to confuse and then we usually have an umbrella stroller for our 4 year old too. I usually leave the diaper bag with no valuables in the stroller. People who are stealing a stroller to use it and ditch it are less likely to take something with personal belongings in it and of course making it identifiable keeps those accidental thought it was ours thefts from occurring. If someone is trying to steal them just because or to make profit then there isn't much you can do. I guess having a cheap, easily identifiable stroller w/ personal belongings probably makes you the least likely target. But personally, I want my son to be comfortable and have storage space so I will continue to take my chances.

 

[Suellen]

We've had our stolen twice. Once it was my own personal... next it was a rental. Eh ~ what are you going to do. When you have that many people around.... it is bound to happen to someone.

Luckily our own was a cheap one.

 

[twoplustwins]

To deter thiefs, we usually leave the baby IN the stroller while it is parked.

Very few thiefs want to steal the baby with the stroller, they are just after the stroller. Easier to steal one without a baby in it.

Has worked for us for many trips.

 

[NYEmomma]

NO!!!!! Don't do it!

Over the years we lost 2 lovies in hotel rooms and they never showed up again. I refer to hotel rooms as the black hole of stuff. If you lose it, it NEVER shows back up again. Both times we KNEW they had it before bed and we ran late leaving and didn't shake out the blankets like we usually do. If I have ONE thing to offer new parents....... it's BUY A SPARE......... and NEVER take the original on vacation!

The funny part is this....... we have lost a number of things in hotel rooms. It's become the family joke that we always call....... but have never recovered a single one of them.

On our last trip this December, my daughter wore a pair of Pocahontas boots at Animal Kingdom in the rain. THey were soaked so we left them behind in the hotel room. They looked HORRIBLE. I thought they'd just throw them out for us. Shortly after getting home, we got a note from the POP. They had our boots and wanted to mail them to us! Now why didn't that happen with the 2 lovies we lose years before????

That's it... I'm just going to duct tape blankie to my side so that it can't ever be out of my sight.

Because seriously, the world would end if blankie went MIA (hence why we have 3 copies of the same blanket, lol!)

I'm a little paranoid about our stroller getting stolen. I just bought a new combi lightweight to use specifically for our trip. Yes, it's only $70, but that's a lot of money for US. I've been scrimping and saving every spare dime we have for the past year to make this trip because we want to pay for it upfront and not have a credit card bill for it. It's bright yellow... SUPER bright yellow. I'm hoping that in itself will be a bit of a deterrent. Assuming there's not 500 other people with bright yellow strollers at WDW.

 

[ZehnJahren]

I did have my shower curtain stolen right off the stroller while in the Philharmagic Thanks to the idiots who took it and had their stroller remain dry...while ours did not!

Why not zip tie the shower curtain to the stroller too? then you could just roll it up when you don't need it, and someone would have to obviously rip it to get it off...

 

[aaarcher86]

We usually just go to Target or Walmart and buy 2 cheap and ugly strollers for the kids. It's probably $30 or so for us and then we'll give them away at the end of our trip to someone who would otherwise need to rent some.

I never worried - they were truly so ugly I knew no one would want them.

 

[Sydnerella]

To deter thiefs, we usually leave the baby IN the stroller while it is parked.

Very few thiefs want to steal the baby with the stroller, they are just after the stroller. Easier to steal one without a baby in it.

Has worked for us for many trips.

Thank you for the wonderful LOL giggle at my desk!

Sydnerella's Mama

something to keep in mind for next time!

 

[SnipsNSnails]

To deter thiefs, we usually leave the baby IN the stroller while it is parked.

Very few thiefs want to steal the baby with the stroller, they are just after the stroller. Easier to steal one without a baby in it.

Has worked for us for many trips.

When I was there in Dec. someone left a sleeping baby in a stroller by the Magic Carpets across from the Tiki Room. Mom was in line for the carpets with other family members and dad, from what I could tell was possibly getting fps for Jungle Cruise. One CM instructed another to stand and watch the baby while they called security and then here comes mom back through the ride line and shortly after dad. I walked past, saw what was happening, got in line, and then noticed mom starting to make her way back, so not just a few seconds. Not quite sure what happened there because they didn't seem to speak English well, or at least pretended not to. The CMs were trying to communicate that they needed to wait for security but then I couldn't see any more of what was going on because DS and I were in line for the carpets.

 

[Sneezie]

Our stroller was stolen (or I guess you can say it was traded) during our September 2010 trip. We had a cheapie purple umbrella stroller with multi-colored flowers - along with 1/3rd of the other guests at Disney World. When I realized that our stroller was so common, I decided to leave our bag in it (no valuable stuff included). We'd borrowed so really couldn't mark it up.

We left the stroller in stroller parking in Fantasyland and went on some rides. When we got back to stroller parking, I removed the bag, put my niece in the stroller and proceeded to the restroom. The stroller wasn't rolling as smoothly but I didn't think anything of it. While my sister and niece used the restroom, I noticed that the plastic over the handles on the stroller were torn, upon further inspection, I realized that this definitely was not our stroller. The wheels were all messed up (they would turn inward and lock up making it hard to move. Someone had actually REMOVED our bag and put it in their dalipadated stroller and took our stroller!

I swear I cursed that stroller every step I took. I tried to "trade" with someone else but really couldn't bring myself to do it. We took the stroller home and threw it out. We can laugh about it now, but we were really upset then.

I'm grateful that they didn't just take the stroller and leave us with nothing. DNeice appreciated it too. We bought one for both DNeice and DNephew for this year and I plan on letting EVERYONE know that they are our strollers!!!