Stupid question - do strollers get stolen often?

[mintchoco]

We have a black baby jogger city mini. It's by no means a Stokke, but I am curious if strollers get stolen often at the MK. How I can make sure mine doesn't get stolen, etc. Thanks!

 

[Kpskyman]

Not real sure, but I saw this posted elsewhere as a deterant, take an infant diaper and smear some brown mustard on it and leave it on the stroller seat. No one will mess with your stroller !!!

 

[souris]

Just add things to your stroller to make it personal.. I add a stroller tag and ribbons. Strollers do not often get stollen.

 

[Deb & Bill]

Not real sure, but I saw this posted elsewhere as a deterant, take an infant diaper and smear some brown mustard on it and leave it on the stroller seat. No one will mess with your stroller !!!

There are garbage cans all over the place. Everyone knows that old trick.

To the OP: The only way to make sure your stroller doesn't get stolen is to stay with it at all times. Never leave it out of your sight. And never leave anything in it that you would miss if it was taken.

There were some posts recently about strollers that were stolen. If you rent from Disney, they will replace it. Same with the offsite companies if you get their insurance.

 

[squirrel]

Make it stand out in the crowd of strollers.

I'm sure strollers get stolen. I have not had it happen to me.

 

[bumbershoot]

Often? Probably not. But stolen, sure. Taken by mistake, sure.

Leave NOTHING in it that you might miss. Leave nothing at all if you simply do not want the chance of the feeling of having something taken from you. (of course, having a stroller taken will give you that feeling, and you have to leave the stroller quite often)

Park it facing outwards. Put the brake on. Those two things make it just that much harder to move quickly. I can't recall if I've seen this suggested here or just on the DLR boards, but there are some who will get a small cable lock and thread it through the two BACK wheels. That keeps the back wheels from moving. The person would have to roll it on the front wheels.

Doing this keeps a thief from wanting to mess with your stroller, but still allows CMs to move it if they need to to do.

 

[LindseyLou2222]

Purchase a stroller lock to thread between the wheels. I found quite a few on amazon.

 

[mm1971]

We have a black baby jogger city mini. It's by no means a Stokke, but I am curious if strollers get stolen often at the MK. How I can make sure mine doesn't get stolen, etc. Thanks!

I am not sure how often they get stolen, but it does happen as there have been several posts on these boards. I am guessing that when you put a couple hundred thousand people in one place with valuables, there will always be some dishonest people trying to take advantage.

The only way to guarantee not losing the carriage would be to leave it home. Buy an inexpensive umbrella stroller or rent one. If you bring yours, find a way to mark/identify it easily to make it less likely to be a target.

 

[MouseOfGold]

We leave in 2 days & I'm bringing my double Britax B-agile with a stroller lock I purchased at Babies R Us. Someone stated in a previous thread that the wheels could possibly be broken by a CM moving my stroller while my wheels are locked with the cable but I'll take my chances. I'm also going to mark it some way. It will just give me peace of mind that I took some measures to secure it.

 

[doxnal]

I was somewhat worried about this, but both the format of the stroller parking sections and the fact that most people at Disney are not equipped to handle such a hefty item makes theft fairly unlikely, which is not to say it's not possible. If you're truly concerned about this, get a lock or see if you can get a travel insurance policy that covers thefts.

I would definitely be careful not to leave valuables in conspicuous places, though. We have a little cutout in our stroller where I kept our video camera and I made sure never to leave the stroller without first removing the camera. I also made sure any bags that contained wallets, phones, etc. were taken before we left the stroller. Such things could be swiped quite easily without raising suspicion or imposing significant burden on the thief.

 

[kmb584]

I've traveled to WDW with a stroller 10 times since DD was born and never encountered a stolen stroller, although one time I did enter the stroller parking that used to be next to IASW only to find someone touching and oogling DD's Juicy Couture Maclaren. Whether or not that person would taken it if I hadn't claimed it at the precise moment is anyone's guess. The best advice that I can give is to not leave anything valuable (camera, etc.) in or on the stroller and to use either ribbon, balloon, etc. that makes it easy for you to identify the stroller itself.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

i was planning on doing the wheel lock but i couldn't get to my bike lock in the garage. good thing i did not bring it. even though DD2 walked as much as we could in each land, we were still in and out of the stroller too often to make the wheel locking practical. we did put the brake on one wheel though. One time in the sea of strollers near the carousel our stroller was parked next to our EXACT stroller! Their stroller was not marked to stand out like ours, and i could see how you could end up taking the wrong stroller. Especially if you sent one of your kids to go get it, just thinking that could be a way you end up with the wrong one. Another thing to realize is that you park your stroller and come to see that the CM's moved it. Often we had to scan the sea to find ours. Sometimes it stayed where we left it,but more often it was moved. Some rides you take your stroller into and then further up the que you give the CM the stroller and they park it for you, like on the Safari ride and It's Tough to be a Bug. One way we made our stroller stick out was to put lei's the ones we had from all our Ohana dinners, we wrapped one on each handle, along with wrapping around a neon sweatshirt hood string. Then we had our refillable mugs hooked onto the hood strings and in the cup holder.. we could always find ours quick. Nobody ever took the cups. A lot of people's strollers were filled with all kinds of stuff. I always felt fine leaving our stroller.

 

[englishteacha]

If you're not worrying about resale value, stencil your name on it. We have a $50 stroller and if it goes with us on any big trips, I'll probably put our name on it somewhere. We've already gotten our money's worth out of it! 2 of my sisters had almost identical kayaks. One sister had her family name prominently written on hers. The other sister didn't. One kayak was stolen. Guess which one?

If you don't want to permanently mark it, then make sure to decorate it somehow that is hard to remove. And the wheel lock idea is pretty good, too, if it's going to be parked for a while. Don't leave valuables in the stroller. If you're really concerned about your stroller going missing, get a cheaper one to take instead. I like my $50 Jeep Cherokee one from Walmart!

 

[SamSam]

Decorate it, add a big name tag, and be prepared that cm's move strollers so don't panic if you don't see yours when you first come out of an attraction.

 

[MouseOfGold]

I just returned from WDW and I used my stroller lock almost every time I went on an attraction or into a restaurant. It was easy to use and my stroller wheels were not broken when a CM moved it. And I do know someone whose stroller was taken while at WDW a few years ago.

 

[lorenni]

If you're not worrying about resale value, stencil your name on it. We have a $50 stroller and if it goes with us on any big trips, I'll probably put our name on it somewhere. We've already gotten our money's worth out of it! 2 of my sisters had almost identical kayaks. One sister had her family name prominently written on hers. The other sister didn't. One kayak was stolen. Guess which one? If you don't want to permanently mark it, then make sure to decorate it somehow that is hard to remove. And the wheel lock idea is pretty good, too, if it's going to be parked for a while. Don't leave valuables in the stroller. If you're really concerned about your stroller going missing, get a cheaper one to take instead. I like my $50 Jeep Cherokee one from Walmart!

The stencil/name is a great idea. The profit potential for a thief of my plain red MacLaren goes way down with my name in black permanent marker on the hood! I'll be working on that before our trip in January.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

For those that have used a stroller lock, would a regular bike lock work? We have a city mini and I'm not too keen on permanently marking it , as it's new and this is our last child. I'd like to pass it on or sell it. I'm also considering just renting from kingdom strollers or another company that rents city minis. I could use the extra space in the car!!

 

[robinb]

Strollers do not get taken often, but they do get taken. I had an expensive MaClaren and it was never touched except to be moved by CMs. Some folks do suggest a stroller lock but that was too much of a PITB for me. Plus, you need to be able to allow the CMs to move your stroller freely if they want to.

 

[Gracie09]

For those that have used a stroller lock, would a regular bike lock work? We have a city mini and I'm not too keen on permanently marking it , as it's new and this is our last child. I'd like to pass it on or sell it. I'm also considering just renting from kingdom strollers or another company that rents city minis. I could use the extra space in the car!!

We put stickers on our uppa baby with our name on it. Several and some hidden. That way we can remove them (and goo gone any marks) and sell it

 

[mousehunter3]

We were there two months ago. We rented a stroller. It had a tag with our name on it and I tied a unique scarf on it so we could find it. I also left both of our backpacks with it when we went to attractions- one underneath and one on the seat- and pulled the sunshade over. Nobody ever touched our stuff. I heard it does happen, but it seems pretty rare to me...