Sammie
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 22,130
I want to share this story that was shared on the DVC forums, because it simply amazes me that people think there are no thieves at Disney World.
Pools are easy targets and never would I leave valuables such as phones, cameras, credit cards unattended.
This guest got lucky, many don't. I am amazed they charged him with trespass when resorts are considered wide open to any that want to wander around.
Valley News Dispatch, Saturday 25, 2011
Vacationer Uses iPhone app to nab theft suspect
An Oakmont man says a cell phone application and prayer saved his famly’s vacation when a thief struck. Dave Longstreth, 34, of Greenwich Court, said the family’s diaper bag held iPhones, wallets and a camera when they put it under a poolside chair at Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge Resort last week.“There were mainly families there. We thought the bag was safe.” Said Longstreth, music minister at Riverside Community Church.
But when Dave and his 2 year old son Braden left the kiddie pool at lunchtime on March 15 they found the bag was gone and his wife, Carrie and daughter Kylie 5 hadn’t moved it. There was sudden panic. “Our IDs and credit cards were in there” Longstreth said “along with the camera with all of the photos of the family all week”. Then Longstreth had an idea: he might be able to find the times using his iPhone. But he had to hurry and pray. After answering security questions at the front desk, Longstreth got a replacement key and ran to the family’s hotel room. He fired up his laptop and clicked on a phone locater application that he had downloaded into his phone…it worked!
The alleged thief, who police later identified as 41 year old David Ward Bain, was at the dock waiting for a boat to cross Bay Lake to go to the Magic Kingdom. “Waiting for a boat were two older couples and a guy in his ‘40’s” Longstreth said. “He had a backpack on.” A resort employee said he had no authority to ask the man to show them what was inside the backpack, but he agreed to help. The employee asked the boat’s captain to wait, but the boat pulled away. As it did, Longstreth was able to show another Disney employee how the phone location on the laptop screen was moving – it was about 400 yards away – just about where the boat was at that time.
After a speedboat ride across the lake, Longstreth pointed out the man to security, who held him for the Orange County sheriff’s deputies. “They found six cell phones in his pack and he kept saying the one that was ringing was his. It wasn’t,” Longstreth said. “I had called it and locked it so he couldn’t access it. Longstreth said detectives told him that Bain already had spent $25 at an arcade using his debit card. His debit card wasn’t returned, but Lonstreth was told he will be getting the $25 back. Almost everything else was returned. According to sheriff’s department spokesman Jim Solomons, Bain, whose last known address was Eatonville, FL, is charged with grand theft, trespass and fraudulent use of a credit card.
Disney didn’t reply to a request for comment. Longstreth hasn’t talked with Bain, but if he ever does, he said he would tell the suspect that he hopes Bain learned his lesson.
Pools are easy targets and never would I leave valuables such as phones, cameras, credit cards unattended.
This guest got lucky, many don't. I am amazed they charged him with trespass when resorts are considered wide open to any that want to wander around.
Valley News Dispatch, Saturday 25, 2011
Vacationer Uses iPhone app to nab theft suspect
An Oakmont man says a cell phone application and prayer saved his famly’s vacation when a thief struck. Dave Longstreth, 34, of Greenwich Court, said the family’s diaper bag held iPhones, wallets and a camera when they put it under a poolside chair at Walt Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge Resort last week.“There were mainly families there. We thought the bag was safe.” Said Longstreth, music minister at Riverside Community Church.
But when Dave and his 2 year old son Braden left the kiddie pool at lunchtime on March 15 they found the bag was gone and his wife, Carrie and daughter Kylie 5 hadn’t moved it. There was sudden panic. “Our IDs and credit cards were in there” Longstreth said “along with the camera with all of the photos of the family all week”. Then Longstreth had an idea: he might be able to find the times using his iPhone. But he had to hurry and pray. After answering security questions at the front desk, Longstreth got a replacement key and ran to the family’s hotel room. He fired up his laptop and clicked on a phone locater application that he had downloaded into his phone…it worked!
The alleged thief, who police later identified as 41 year old David Ward Bain, was at the dock waiting for a boat to cross Bay Lake to go to the Magic Kingdom. “Waiting for a boat were two older couples and a guy in his ‘40’s” Longstreth said. “He had a backpack on.” A resort employee said he had no authority to ask the man to show them what was inside the backpack, but he agreed to help. The employee asked the boat’s captain to wait, but the boat pulled away. As it did, Longstreth was able to show another Disney employee how the phone location on the laptop screen was moving – it was about 400 yards away – just about where the boat was at that time.
After a speedboat ride across the lake, Longstreth pointed out the man to security, who held him for the Orange County sheriff’s deputies. “They found six cell phones in his pack and he kept saying the one that was ringing was his. It wasn’t,” Longstreth said. “I had called it and locked it so he couldn’t access it. Longstreth said detectives told him that Bain already had spent $25 at an arcade using his debit card. His debit card wasn’t returned, but Lonstreth was told he will be getting the $25 back. Almost everything else was returned. According to sheriff’s department spokesman Jim Solomons, Bain, whose last known address was Eatonville, FL, is charged with grand theft, trespass and fraudulent use of a credit card.
Disney didn’t reply to a request for comment. Longstreth hasn’t talked with Bain, but if he ever does, he said he would tell the suspect that he hopes Bain learned his lesson.
I lost mine last year at US but the battery was pretty much dead when I did, it was not stolen I decided to throw it off the top of a roller coaster 
. Wonder why???? 
