Stroller theft

[jettyspagetti]

We were there for 7 days in 2007 with our stroller from home and never had a problem. We had made a luggage tag for it with my daughter's name and we left diaper bag, camera bag everything in there at some point in the trip and had zero problems. The only time it was ever even moved was in Fantasy Land at MK.

 

[bzzybee13]

FYI, Orlando Stroller Rental offers stroller insurance, it's only $10 or $15. To me it's worth it for peace of mind...

We plan on renting ours from an outside company but they make it very clear that if it's stolen, we're responsible for it. So the idea of someone taking the stroller makes me VERY nervous as well!

 

[momofrrr]

WE never had any trouble. We always just added the cost of rental into our budget so we would not have to deal with bringing the stroller with us. Just don't leave your camera.... in the stroller when you go to an attraction. I always too a bright colored scarf or ribbon to tie onto the handle just for quick recognition. Have a great trip!

 

[kevingg]

Let me start by saying we have taken a stroller the last 5 trips and never had a problem....till this past trip. We parked our strollers (we had two, a peg pergo double and a regular umbrella stroller) in front of the haunted mansion and went on the ride. When we came out they were both gone. We couldn't find them at all. We asked a couple cast members who showed us where they usually get moved.

After about five minutes a manager of one of the restaurants (across from haunted mansion can't remember the name) came and strated helping. SHe recommended we go and look at some of the other stroller parking "lots". Strangely enough we did find ONLY our peg perego in this spot but the umbrella stroller was gone. We know that someone took them both because all of our things had been rifled through and moved. We had it covered with rain cover and clothes in a bag that was thrown all over the stroller. Nothing was taken (not even my kids autograph books), we didn't have anything of real value in it, though. No cameras etc.

The manager was great she called security and told them what happened and offered to give us a umbrella stroller and/or a double from the park since we were down one stroller and the double was soaked ( it was pouring). We have three young kids and were stuck without a stroller.

In the end we did find our stroller about an hour later as we canvased every stroller that we saw. We came across it as we were walking by philharmagic. It had other people things in it. My husband was so angry he wanted to wait for the people to come back to claim it. I was able to talk him out of it though. We knew it was ours since there were very distinguishable marks on it. The only thing we didn't have on it was our name. DUH!! Needless to say I have our name on all our strollers now.

All in all we think the person really just wanted our stroller (preobably had a tired kid and didn't want to spend the $ to rent one. They just decided to help themselves to ours and just see if there was anything they wanted of value. Some people are just so BOLD they just don't care. These things even happen in Disney!! (words right out of the managers mouth).

 

[AmyBWV99]

That's what we're concerned about and we've gone and until this last trip we never locked strollers. But as Disney raises the rental prices to start turning people off of renting from them then parents have a tired cranky kid they take them out desperate/mistakingly (hopefully) measures.

 

[steph73]

I'm a bit concerned about this, too. I'm going to be bringing either a Maclaren or a Baby Jogger with us. Renting isn't an option since my DS will only be barely 10 months old on our trip.

I will say that we took a Combi double with us in 2001 and didn't have any problems at all... we even left stuff in the bottom a few times, though nothing really of value.

I love the ideas for marking your stroller with your name somewhere, in case you have to prove it's yours. I will definitely be doing that! I also plan to get a brightly colored bandanna and tie it to the handle for easy identification in a sea of strollers. The "don't take my stroller" sign and iron-on are great ideas as well!

DH wants to take a bike lock and thread it through the tires. I'm not sure if that will end up being too much of a hassle, though.

 

[Hillbeans]

We just returned and had our Peg Perego stroller along for the trip. Granted, it's at least 4 years old now and really worn out, but we've never had anyone steal our stroller and we've had it to WDW at least 4 times. Have a wonderful trip!!!

 

[BABY_EINSTEIN'S_MOM]

We were just there for 14 days with a Maclaren Volo. I did forget to fix up my nametag, but we never had a problem. I was probably too trusting towards the end of our trip because I began leaving some of our purchased items in the stroller when rushing to get on rides! I never did leave my camera, etc. in the stroller though.
Also, our stroller did get moved quite a few times. Have fun!

 

[kevschickee]

Let me start by saying we have taken a stroller the last 5 trips and never had a problem....till this past trip. We parked our strollers (we had two, a peg pergo double and a regular umbrella stroller) in front of the haunted mansion and went on the ride. When we came out they were both gone. We couldn't find them at all. We asked a couple cast members who showed us where they usually get moved.

After about five minutes a manager of one of the restaurants (across from haunted mansion can't remember the name) came and strated helping. SHe recommended we go and look at some of the other stroller parking "lots". Strangely enough we did find ONLY our peg perego in this spot but the umbrella stroller was gone. We know that someone took them both because all of our things had been rifled through and moved. We had it covered with rain cover and clothes in a bag that was thrown all over the stroller. Nothing was taken (not even my kids autograph books), we didn't have anything of real value in it, though. No cameras etc.

The manager was great she called security and told them what happened and offered to give us a umbrella stroller and/or a double from the park since we were down one stroller and the double was soaked ( it was pouring). We have three young kids and were stuck without a stroller.

In the end we did find our stroller about an hour later as we canvased every stroller that we saw. We came across it as we were walking by philharmagic. It had other people things in it. My husband was so angry he wanted to wait for the people to come back to claim it. I was able to talk him out of it though. We knew it was ours since there were very distinguishable marks on it. The only thing we didn't have on it was our name. DUH!! Needless to say I have our name on all our strollers now.

All in all we think the person really just wanted our stroller (preobably had a tired kid and didn't want to spend the $ to rent one. They just decided to help themselves to ours and just see if there was anything they wanted of value. Some people are just so BOLD they just don't care. These things even happen in Disney!! (words right out of the managers mouth).

Oh I would have wanted to wait for them to. People are awful!

 

[taymacsmom]

I'm a bit concerned about this, too. I'm going to be bringing either a Maclaren or a Baby Jogger with us. Renting isn't an option since my DS will only be barely 10 months old on our trip.

I will say that we took a Combi double with us in 2001 and didn't have any problems at all... we even left stuff in the bottom a few times, though nothing really of value.

I love the ideas for marking your stroller with your name somewhere, in case you have to prove it's yours. I will definitely be doing that! I also plan to get a brightly colored bandanna and tie it to the handle for easy identification in a sea of strollers. The "don't take my stroller" sign and iron-on are great ideas as well!

DH wants to take a bike lock and thread it through the tires. I'm not sure if that will end up being too much of a hassle, though.

I have been considering taking a bike lock also. I have a Baby Jogger and I may just remove a wheel as it is very easy to do. Not sure. I want to trust that nothing will happen but I don't want to be naive and lose my stroller!

 

[Picabo]

I read that the ones Orlando Stroller Rentals uses (Citi Mini) has wheels that just pop off with a click so you can pop one of the wheels off when you park it - who would want to mess around with steeling a stroller that doesn't have a wheel?

Also love the idea of posting a huge sign on there. We'll be renting one but I'm thinking of having a DISIGNER create something and then laminate it and hang it on the stroller using cable ties. (So it's not easy to yank off) And I like the luggage tag idea as well. I think people who do take other's strollers PROBABLY take the ones that are easy to take and not easily identified by their owners. Still, it sucks to have to even THINK about this when at a place as happy as Disney World!

 

[loveysbydesign]

I read that the ones Orlando Stroller Rentals uses (Citi Mini) has wheels that just pop off with a click so you can pop one of the wheels off when you park it - who would want to mess around with steeling a stroller that doesn't have a wheel?

Also love the idea of posting a huge sign on there. We'll be renting one but I'm thinking of having a DISIGNER create something and then laminate it and hang it on the stroller using cable ties. (So it's not easy to yank off) And I like the luggage tag idea as well. I think people who do take other's strollers PROBABLY take the ones that are easy to take and not easily identified by their owners. Still, it sucks to have to even THINK about this when at a place as happy as Disney World!

We ironed on our "tag" so that way no one could take it off...plus with our kids picture actually on it, a cm or anyone else for that matter could tell whether or not it belonged to the correct family!
Not sure if you saw the picture I posted earlier but this is the one we used

I have the blank one saved to my computer if anyone would like a copy or would like me to add their name/picture.

 

[jenn22]

I would love to have a copy!!!! Do you just buy iron-on material? I have never done that before.

 

[mickeymouse1017]

We were there last week and had our stroller taken. I had a name tag on it and there were several others just like it at the stroller parking by Small World. One of the problems was that the CMs were constantly moving strollers around and I think that whoever took it just grabbed the one that was nearest to where they had left theirs. I told the CM that I really thought that it was a case of mistaken identity rather than theft but that I was still out a stroller. She said that they would wait until the end of the night and if a stroller matching mine was left over then they would know that was what had happened. I called lost and found the next morning and that is exactly what had happened. They had a stroller just like mine. It was the only one in the stroller parking that did not have a name on it. The thing that bothers me is that whoever took mine had to see my name tag on it at some point especially when they folded it up and still never bothered to call me once they realized that they had the wrong stroller. Luckily it is not an extremely expensive one, Evenflo, so I was not too worried. I will tell those of you that are out there trying to decide what stroller to buy that when I got this Evenflo last year, there were not many others out there. It is the one that is entirely hot pink. One this last trip, they are everywhere. My advice would be to be make certain that you put something on your stroller to clearly identify it. I love the stroller but now have big bows tied to my handles in addition to a new name tag.

 

[loveysbydesign]

Here's the blank one I used,

and here is a link to one of the disgners from the disign board...she has many blanks you could use to trun into a stroller tag!
http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l53/snoopymccollough/Blanks/?start=all

 

[rt2dz]

Do strollers wind up missing at WDW? Of course. Are the majority of those by mistake? I believe so. Are some out and out thefts? I’m sure of it. But the real question is: how likely is your stroller to be taken? I think very few are, percentage wise. If you clearly mark your stroller in some unique way, it is less likely to be taken by mistake. Anyone who truly wants to steal it, will. No matter what. Who really carries a dirty diaper with them? And how hard would it be to throw it away in one of the many trash cans? I don’t think CMs are really capable of policing the strollers.

We go every year (last year twice) for over a week. My strollers (depending on where we were in life) cost from $100 to $400. Not a problem ever. I don’t leave anything of value in my stroller—the diaper bag, but if anyone needs diapers that bad, they’re welcome to them. Our strollers are marked with our name in more than one place (one spot that is sure not to be noticed so I could use it to identify/prove it’s our stroller) and uniquely decorated (without being overt). I have obnoxious luggage holders that go over the handle bars and something tied on to the side.

 

[jen2207]

1. Take a diaper
2. smear it with mustard or melt a chocolate bar in it
3. tie it up in a clear-ish plastic bag - tie it to the stroller

No one will touch it - guaranteed!!!!

 

[mizzoumom]

Now that is funny. Have you tried this, is this why you know it works?

 

[M-J's Mommy]

DD2 has a bright pink stroller. We also always buy one of the big Mickey balloons right when we get to the park, so I tie it to the stroller. No matter where it is, I can see the balloon from a mile away when you combine that with the hot pink-ness of the stroller. Granted, we only go to Disneyland and this trip upcoming will be our first to the World, but it works out for us.

P.S. The stroller was only $40 at Wal-Mart but it has a shade and storage space underneath.

 

[jenn22]

Thank you loveysbydesign for posting the blank tag!