Theft @ OKW

[Crissup]

Originally posted by CarolAnnC
The County Sherrif has jurisdiction over that area, not the OPD.

Correct, WDW is not within the municipal boundaries of the city of Orlando, so the Orlando police have no jurisdiction there.

Originally posted by CarolAnnC
Again, I am not sure about the door being "jimmied" open

Correct again. As I recall (and would expect), the outer doors on the DVC units use deadlatches. When the door closes, the spring loaded latch is pushed back to slide past the door jam. Once closed, the strike plate holds a deadlatching pin inward which causes the latch to no longer be able to be presses in unless you turn the doorknob (thereby retracting the latch via the knob).

The old "slide the credit card in the jam" just doesn't work anymore.

 

[CarolA]

My laptop has made LOTS of Disney trips. It just gets stored in the closet in it's case. So far so good. The cable locks are a good idea and I have used them if I am leaving the laptop up and running. Yes there are ways around them but what you are preventing is the quick grab and run. Most thiefs in hotel rooms don't want to hang around. You could come home.

I do backup periodically so if it disappears my data doesn't. Your homeowners should cover your laptop (call and verifiy this!)

 

[LoveToDisney]

Wow, I thought when they talked about the door being "jimmied", they meant just the safe door.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

A previous poster mentioned that one can't just get a copy made at any local hardware store -- 'tis a bit of an understatement. The security behind these keys is topnotch. We use Medeco keys at my Church, however despite being the pastor I'm not authorized to request a copy. The locksmith is more than happy to take my money -- but my name means nothing for a request. My secretary sends me off with a signed and sealed written request for a specific number of keys of a specific cut. The signature is compared against that on file in one locked file. When that checks out the pins for the key-cutter are removed from another locked cabinet and loaded into the cutter. The locksmith keeps a file on the number of keys we have and each one is numbered and lettered as to its specific usage.
If DVC safes are indeed Medeco keyed as has been reported, then I am quite confident with leaving the Royal Jewels in one of those safes.

 

[DebbieB]

Originally posted by lightningcoach
At SSR we just left the Do Not Disturb sign hanging on the door at all times because we had computers with us. Employees will get in trouble if they breach that. It just meant that we cleaned our own room and switched out the towels and linens ourselves. No big deal.

We've stayed at OKW in May the past 5 years and I think we only had a "do not disturb" sign the first year. I like to put it out on mornings when housekeeping is scheduled so they know not to knock at 8:30am (we sleep late). We've always had one at BWV, I don't know what happens to them at OKW, maybe they blow off with the outside entrances.

 

[LoveToDisney]

We never had a "Do not disturb" sign at our BCV 2 BR. I noticed another room door had one, but we didn't.

 

[colleen costello]

You can request a sign if you do not have one. We also sleep in on vacation, so we always use the signs so the maids don't knock. If you don't have one they will get you one. If you keep odd hours they are invaluable. We make SURE to use it on check-out day as we never leave til 10:59 am!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Coach Rick
All this talk is making me a bit paranoid about my laptop. Perhaps I don't need to take it after all. I have a GPS I usually take with me everywhere, but for local maps I have to load them off my laptop. I like to watch the GPS as we fly down from RI, and see the ground speed, heading, and elapse time. I guess I have to decide what I need it for more. Probably the flight. We usually go to Disney, and don't leave the property but maybe once. I was planning on getting on DVC Chat on Sunday night from OKW, but I guess I may have to rethink that too.

Once again, sad world we are bringing up our childeren in.

Coach Rick,
I would not even worry about the laptop. In all my trips I have never even had anything touched or moved and like I said, I even leave money laying around.

 

[Mickmse2002]

As a cop I always tend to question reports such as these. I certainly am not saying it didn't happen there just seems to be a lot of questions that remain unanswered. One of the questions that we ask ourselves as investigators is: "why this room? Why this car? Why this person, etc.? "Random" crime is rarely "random". Crimes of opportunity or just that, an opportunity. Perhaps the door was left propped open by the latch being flipped forward. Perhaps the money was lost and the owner just couldn't accept they lost it so reported it as stolen (a frequent occurance). The likliehood of one totally secure room/safe being victimized by a forced entry is very remote and so high risk to the suspect with no sure pay-off. It seems unlikely.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

It's very comforting to hear such voices of reason out here. I expect WDW is one of the safest places to vacation, as well as being one of the happiest places to be.

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Originally posted by Mickmse2002
As a cop I always tend to question reports such as these. I certainly am not saying it didn't happen there just seems to be a lot of questions that remain unanswered. One of the questions that we ask ourselves as investigators is: "why this room? Why this car? Why this person, etc.? "Random" crime is rarely "random". Crimes of opportunity or just that, an opportunity. Perhaps the door was left propped open by the latch being flipped forward. Perhaps the money was lost and the owner just couldn't accept they lost it so reported it as stolen (a frequent occurance). The likliehood of one totally secure room/safe being victimized by a forced entry is very remote and so high risk to the suspect with no sure pay-off. It seems unlikely.

I am not a cop, but, the OP stated he is going back for the first time in a long time, but, in another post states he was there last week and noticed the hours of the General Store.
This is very "fishy" and this thread has failed my "smell" test.
I also find it odd that they did not take the jewels. Diamonds are very easy to hock. Besides, who takes diamonds to Disney?

 

[crisi]

I thought something similar. I mean, I bring diamonds to Disney, but they are in my ears, on my finger or around my neck - all the time.

Now, I think the cruise may be a little different, I might haul some of my jewelry along for formal night. And I suppose that if you went to V&As or something at Disney, you might have occation jewelry along.

But I'm sure there are people out there who do travel with their precious gemstones and change their jewelry. And people who travel with a lot of cash (I'm rather forgetful, so I never carry more cash than I can afford to lose - left too many purses in restaurants to carry a lot of cash). Neither seems wise to me - and with secured credit cards, travelers checks, the ability to drop cash on your room account, it doesn't seem necessary - but not everyone is educated about their options.

And, I'm sure that on occation doors at Disney get jimmied, safes get broken into. With the thousands of guests and CMs floating around the place, not everyone is honest.

Just because it doesn't happen again doesn't mean it didn't - if it was another guest than you wouldn't necessarily have a pattern - say it was a guy away from his family for the afternoon taking advantage of no eyes. And just because we didn't hear about it here doesn't mean it didn't happen again - we are a small subset of Disney guests. And the OP reporting the Orlando police instead of the sherrif being there doesn't bother me - how many people really know the difference and would take note (the police around here were blue, sherriffs wear brown and to my uneducated eyes, that is the only difference).

But I'm not going to lose sleep over it - I'll take the same precautions I always do - don't carry much cash, don't bring a lot of valuables on vacation, keep the door latch closed when the room is occupied. You can get robbed at Disney, or you can get robbed at home.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Originally posted by GAIL HAYDEN
I am not a cop, but, the OP stated he is going back for the first time in a long time, but, in another post states he was there last week and noticed the hours of the General Store.
This is very "fishy" and this thread has failed my "smell" test.
I also find it odd that they did not take the jewels. Diamonds are very easy to hock. Besides, who takes diamonds to Disney?

ITA! I didn't notice that little time line discrepancy, but it all seemed "fishy" to me too.

 

[DJR]

I don't want to get into defending myself or what I reported. Please keep in mind that I wasn't there, and I was only reporting what I was told. I certainly don't have all of the details, but I have worked with this person for several years, and she wouldn't make this up.

As far as my just "being there" and going back to OKW for the first time in 3 years, we had booked the July trip using DVC points at OKW before the MH was announced. Since we wanted to do that and had our points committed, we paid cash to stay at the AKL. My DD wanted a new OKW DVC tee shirt so we went to the General Stoe to find one.

Just tought the theft would be interesting to others. I don't have any answers.

Dave