We had our double Maclaren stroller stolen from Epcot last year. We parked it in front of The Land, along with our single Peg Perego stroller and when we came out, the Maclaren was gone. I always lock all four wheels of the stroller-- and I'm sure I did this time because we were parked on the hill in the front of The Land, so it would have rolled right back down the hill. When we unloaded the kids, I pushed the Peg Perego up behind the Maclaren because stroller parking was really tight at the time, so whoever took it had to work to get it out from behind the other stroller. We were only gone for 10 minutes or so-- just long enough to grab fast passes at Soarin and run to the bathroom.
I didn't realize it at the time, but my son (then almost 4) had left his security blanket on the seat and they took the blanket with the stroller. We always have the kids leave their blankets in the hotel or car, but he snuck out with it that day because it was freezing in the morning and he smuggled it out under his extra layers! I was ok with losing the stroller, but it still makes me want to cry thinking that someone would steal a little boy's blanket. It was very obviously a security blanket-- it has a giant well-loved and well-worn spot in the center. My son walked around for the rest of the trip asking if I thought the people who needed our stroller more than we did would be mailing us his blanket because he really missed it.
We also had all 3 kids' Mickey ears hanging from the stroller, so we lost those, too. When we went to MK the next day, we stopped by Guest Services to talk to them about renting a stroller and they gave each of the kids a new set of embroidered ears, which I thought was really nice. They also gave us a free rental for the day (just for the day that it was stolen-- not for the whole trip).
When I spoke with Security and filed our report, they told us that either they would find our stroller that night out in the parking lot or somewhere in the park because someone who didn't bring a stroller decided that they needed one so they "borrowed" ours or we wouldn't see it again because apparently there is a small issue with people coming into parks and taking more expensive strollers and then selling them on Craigslist. I said something to him about it being awfully expensive to buy a ticket or AP to come in and steal a stroller to make $75 or so on CL, but he said they had caught people who had taken as many as 15-20 strollers in one morning by taking a stroller and then walking it out to their car and then reentering the park and doing it again.
So- lesson learned-- next time I'll double check that security blankets are left in the hotel and bring anything from the stroller with me that I wouldn't want to lose! For the record, I still brought my own strollers when we went back a few months later and I will be bringing our strollers again this year -- I feel like we were definitely the exception- not the rule and I really don't want to let that one bad experience change my perception of Disney!
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