Keep your stuff safe!!!

[WDWCPAlumni]

My mom went on one of many trips as DVC members. She went with my brothers family and they stayed at AKV in a 2 bedroom this past January.
Day one, they arrived late, 10 or so at night.
Then next morning she pulled some stuff out of the suitcases and off they went to the MK
Not a very smart move but she left 3 envelopes on the bedside table.
1 was extra old passes she had
2 was an envelope of money about $30
3 was an envelope of $900 she planned to use for the week.
She wanted to use the cash as to not overspend.
She wouldnt normally leave out cash, but knowing this is vacation club and no one will be in the room she didnt see a problem.
They came back late, noticed for some reason the room had been cleaned, and went to bed.
Next morning, got up to go, went to take money out from the envelope.........

$900 GONE

So after fighting with the desk, manager and many people finally she was given charging privlages........ They told her to charge as she went for the week, but stay within reason and not to go overboard.
It went to Disney Claims and they found that Disney was not at fault!!
So she actually owes the money back that she spent that week....even though someone took her money.

The desk told her that week that they could see on the records that a cast member DID go into the room, and should not have.
Now they are saying that it was housekeeping but also maintenance went in to fix a leaky sink????

We have never had any big problems at Disney.......I just want everyone to just be aware!!!

 

[happypooh]

My mom went on one of many trips as DVC members. She went with my brothers family and they stayed at AKV in a 2 bedroom this past January.
Day one, they arrived late, 10 or so at night.
Then next morning she pulled some stuff out of the suitcases and off they went to the MK
Not a very smart move but she left 3 envelopes on the bedside table.
1 was extra old passes she had
2 was an envelope of money about $30
3 was an envelope of $900 she planned to use for the week.
She wanted to use the cash as to not overspend.
She wouldnt normally leave out cash, but knowing this is vacation club and no one will be in the room she didnt see a problem.
They came back late, noticed for some reason the room had been cleaned, and went to bed.
Next morning, got up to go, went to take money out from the envelope.........

$900 GONE

So after fighting with the desk, manager and many people finally she was given charging privlages........ They told her to charge as she went for the week, but stay within reason and not to go overboard.
It went to Disney Claims and they found that Disney was not at fault!!
So she actually owes the money back that she spent that week....even though someone took her money.

The desk told her that week that they could see on the records that a cast member DID go into the room, and should not have.
Now they are saying that it was housekeeping but also maintenance went in to fix a leaky sink????

We have never had any big problems at Disney.......I just want everyone to just be aware!!!

Wow...that is awful. I just want to say that I thought it odd our last trip to OKW when on two days in a row maintenance came in to do a check in our room....very odd...both times we let them in as they had ID on but I think next time I will call front desk to check....can't be too careful even in the happiest place on earth...

 

[LVSWL]

I am so sorry that this happened. It would seem to me that if Disney's records show that their employee came into the room then there it is reasonable that they might have taken the money. Especially if it was housekeeping. She shouldn't have had housekeeping on her second day there, should she? I know that I would be very upset about this, whether it was $ or Pins or jewelry. We do try to use the safe, but sometimes do forget and just rush out the door on our way to having fun. Again, so sorry that this happened.

 

[WDWCPAlumni]

It would seem to me that if Disney's records show that their employee came into the room then there it is reasonable that they might have taken the money.

It does show on the record that she came into the room. But since she said she did not take the money, there is nothing they can do. Lets face it, she took the money......She isnt going to actually say that!!!!

No cleaning was expected

 

[disissue]

My gosh that was a real payday for the person who took the cash I am sure not many guests leave $900.00 in a drawer next to the bed, Disney is not exluded from theft or any other type of crime sad reality... I must admit not very magical. Then again I am from Jersey I lock up everything even the costume jewelry!

 

[Dean]

Without proof there's really nothing DVC can do nor any liability technically. It simply becomes a situation of her word against the housekeepers. DVC will keep this info for that person's record and use it if there are other events but it won't help your Mom in this case.

 

[Boardwalker]

I really feel bad for your Mom. I know how bad she must feel.

I had cash stolen from my room years ago, before DVC, before most of the rooms had safes.... at least 15 years ago. We were at the Poly and going to the pool for just a few minutes... and too lazy to go to the front desk safe deposit, so into the underwear drawer... and when we got back the cash was gone. The manager brought a machine to read the electronic door lock, and that was it.

We were on our own and thank God we had prepaid and still had a credit card for meals. But I felt violated for the rest of the vacation and stayed away from Disney for years afterward. (Obviously, time healed those wounds.)

After that I never stayed at a hotel without a safe, and I use it without exception. Our very next trip was to the Grand Floridian, and the safe in our room was broken and I didn't leave the room until they fixed it. I got obsessed, and it has served me well ever since.

After it happened, someone told me that I should have filed a police report, not just a report with Disney Security. They said that because the police are not called, crime goes underreported on Disney property. I wonder if the police were notified in your Mom's case or if things have changed?

Apparently they have changed at least a little if they gave her credit to use at all. We were told that, sorry, since it was cash there is no way we could prove it was even there in the first place and we were on our own. And I had to concede that they were right. I felt really stupid, but they had safe deposit boxes in the lobby available to us that I was aware of, I just didn't bother to use them.

Thanks for sounding the alarm. The safes are there in the closets everybody. Use them. Enjoy your illusion, but don't forget your reality.

 

[nicki's mom]

Thats scary, and sad. No one likes to think this is possible at WDW, but we see it is.

 

[tjkraz]

It went to Disney Claims and they found that Disney was not at fault!!
So she actually owes the money back that she spent that week....even though someone took her money.

Having just returned from WDW myself, I have to reluctantly admit that I left a small pile of Disney Dollars sitting in the open most of the week. Every so often I would grab a few bills to stuff in my wallet, and leave the rest on the table. In retrospect it was a really poor decision and I feel fortunate that I'm not telling a similar story now.

That said, I'd have a tough time holding Disney responsible if I did suffer a loss.

Could a Cast Member have been responsible? Sure, it's possible. They hire somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 people. But as an employer, unfortunately you can't vouch for the honesty of your entire work force. I can appreciate how mom is certain that a Disney CM was responsible, but even the evidence of a room entry is circumstantial.

All other considerations aside, if Disney adopted a blanket policy of replacing funds whenever a guest loss was reported, they would have dozens of claims covering tens-of-thousands of dollars of reported theft on a daily basis. Most would be baseless.

The key word quoted above is "fault." You just can't leave hundreds of dollars worth of cash lying around the hotel room, and then try to hold someone else responsible when it disappears. In lieu of a CM being caught red-handed, it's impossible to prove that Disney is responsible when the guest didn't take reasonable precautions in the first place.

If nothing else, hopefully others will read about this and be a little more careful. Sometimes Disney magic can't fight human nature.

 

[Mike©]

I'm sorry but leaveing $900 laying around in a hotel/resort room ( and one with a safe ) is just plain stupid. this is 2008 and anyone that watches the news at all would know better than to do that ANYWHERE. IMHO

 

[jarestel]

The theft issue is one thing, but the idea that Disney CMs are entering DVC rooms un-announced and un-scheduled is actually much more unsettling to me.

 

[DISNEY FIX]

Sorry about what happened.
Thank you for sharing and making us a little more vigilant for it.

 

[tksbaskets]

I'm so sorry this happened to your family. Face it, we've all done silly things and gotten away with them

(as an aside: 'silly' is our family's substitute word for 'stupid' - try it it sounds much nicer and works in any sentence )

It is easy in hind site for us all to say your mom should have used the little safe in the room. My sis and I did leave our laptop out on the days we didn't expect T & T service. Perhaps we should have put that away each day too.

Any portable valuables were on my person or in the little safe in the closet (Ipod & cash). Hidden from temptation.

TK

 

[1000th happy haunt]

We use Owner's Locker, and actually have a combination cable lock on it. We lock it every day before leaving the room, and keep any valuables in the Owner's Locker.

 

[Chuck S]

I have, fortunately, never had a problem with missing items or cash from a room. However, even at Disney it is unwise to leave large amounts of cash just out for the taking. This thread is a good reminder to use your room safes.

 

[Boardwalker]

I think that there should be a locking drawer somewhere in the room in addition to the safe so people have someplace to secure their larger cameras and laptops and all.... those safes hold wallets, tickets and jewelry... but not much else.

 

[Olaf]

I bring a lock for my suitcase, and put the computer and cameras in there. I always use the hotel safe for any valuables. I'm more than a little paranoid about it. Now I can tell my DH about this and maybe he won't get so annoyed with me and my nitpicking about the safe.

It's obvious that the quality of CMs has gone down.

 

[macosx]

The key word quoted above is "fault." You just can't leave hundreds of dollars worth of cash lying around the hotel room, and then try to hold someone else responsible when it disappears. In lieu of a CM being caught red-handed, it's impossible to prove that Disney is responsible when the guest didn't take reasonable precautions in the first place.

This is a great setup for undercover reporters to put some cameras and catch those thiefs redhanded. Anyone know if this has been done yet? I've seen news shows where the carwash and valets who rummaged thru the car and took coins and cash left in the car. In one instance, they hid cash under the floor mat to test the honesty of the workers. It's a bit of entrapment, but sadly I don't think anyone passed the test. It's got good potential for headline inflation, like the recent "Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/nyregion/10cnd-spitzer.html
Was he the ring leader? Did he recruit customers? Help criminals escape prosecution? I'm not condoning what he did, but it's turning out that he was just a John.

Similarly, headlines like "Prominent Hotel Chain steals from customers" are sure to catch disproportionate attention and make good teasers for news programs.

 

[thepops]

OK .. being a newbie to DVC, how large are the safes in the rooms and what can you put in it?

 

[bavaria]

OK .. being a newbie to DVC, how large are the safes in the rooms and what can you put in it?

A few weeks ago I struggled to put my laptop (leaning upright) and my video iPod in the safe in an SSR studio

Not much else would have fit except for perhaps an envelope etc

But the safes to vary from resort to resort