Very Upsetting Theft At BCV

[dallastxcpa]

I am so sorry for your sister. I hope it all turns out one way or the other.

On a side note. Some one mentioned the safes not being big enough. Every hotel I have ever been in has safes available at the front desk for items also. If you have something too large for the safe in the room please be sure and check with the front desk.

 

[Checkers]

I am so sorry this happened. As a victim of a theft (not at WDW) but at home, I know how one feels violated. In fact, I have not been able to bring myself to hire another cleaning service since the theft. She was caught (and did time) but you still feel violated.

Thanks to all who gave recommendations regarding safeguarding your valuables. Checking all your doors before you leave (the balcony door is one easily forgotten) is a great reminder. It does remind us that as previously mentioned not all good and honest people visit or work at WDW and a little caution goes a long way.

I hope your sister will be able to recoup from her homeowner's insurance and I hope in some way they can enjoy the rest of their vacation.

 

[njmeisje]

I'm sorry this happened as well. I just wanted to second the opinion that the "safes" in the BCV are ridiculously small. Hardly useful.

 

[anna08]

So sorry for your sister's loss - being a victim of theft is an awful feeling and I think they were smart to insist the real police be involved, otherwise Disney like most companies, can hide how much crime actually does occur on premises. At our last trip to SSR there were a bunch of rowdy drunk adult men hanging out on their balcony, and it made me think about the obvious lack of security on Disney property. All it would take would be to have a few patrolling around to keep some of the bad activity at bay. The front desk did send someone out when we just couldn't stand it anymore at 1am, but there were girls screaming at the grandstand pool 5 yards away 15 minutes later. Maybe Disney hides them well, but I have yet to believe they have any kind of real security staff. I must admit when I use the room safe, I always wonder how many other keys exist to open the safe, and whether it is just a joke to use it.

 

[CarolA]

However, if you put the items in the safe and the safe is broken into, you may have some legal recourse as the safe is in the room for the express purpose of safeguarding valuables. If the valuables were not in the safe, there is probably no legal recourse available unless the thief is caught.

It also can't be assumed with any certainty that the thief was a housekeeper or some other Disney personnel.

As for the attitude of the Disney personnel, all your sister can do is report it to DVC or to guest services if she was distressed by it. I hope she got names.

No you don't! Florida (and most state laws) pretty much say the ONLY place you can leave it with ANY legal recourse is the lockboxes at the front desk. That's because it's your word against the hotels in ALL other cases. So they don't KNOW you had valuables

(And no, the "I took a picture of it" method doesn't help LOL!)

For those of you with laptops... head over to BestBuy or someplace. For $30 bucks or so you can buy a cable lock. It's not perfect but it will prevent a "walk off" and having to have one broken off when the key was lost... it's not easy to break (I suggest the combination ones for this reason) Lock that thing to a BIG piece of furniture. Hopefully someone would notice the thief making off with the dining room table and your laptop!

 

[ParrotBill]

I travel with a laptop PC to Disney and lots of other places.

It does fit, on edge, in most Disney hotel room safes. You just can't fit much else. Otherwise I have always been able to get my cameras, jewelry and cash into the safe.

If you need to use a locking cable, be aware it will stop a casual theft but not a professional theft.

You must find something the cable cannot slip off of or that is not easily broken to get it off. This has not been easy for me in many places! When you do find a good place it can be risky by itself - such as forcing you to leave it on the floor because the cables are not very long. Sometimes the only place was the bathroom, and then you risk it getting wet when the maid comes.

So even though it is not convenient, leave it at the desk if you can't secure it in your room!

Ask how it will be stored at the front desk. Not all hotels have safes, and if they do, PCs may not fit. Sometimes it goes in a separate high value luggage area. So there is risk with this too. A hotel in London tried to put my PC someplace safer. Shift change. Nobody knows where it is!

 

[disneynutz]

Disney acted like they didn't care because of the liability issue. As soon as you officially filed a report with security it became a legal issue and Cast Members are trained not to talk about the incident. The fact that your sister filed a police report, may help her with their insurance claim.

 

[Brian Noble]

Unfortunately, the only recourse they are likely to have is to file a claim with their homeowners insurance carrier. If warranted, that carrier will get Disney involved, but in this case, it doesn't sound as though it is warranted.

 

[Dean]

Unfortunately, the only recourse they are likely to have is to file a claim with their homeowners insurance carrier. If warranted, that carrier will get Disney involved, but in this case, it doesn't sound as though it is warranted.

Too late for this situation but adding a floater to a homeowners policy for more expensive jewelry is a fairly inexpensive option. It doesn't help the emotional component but it can limit risk even if simply lost or you lose a large stone.

 

[DisFor20]

I am sorry for the OP's family's loss of property, but I hope they don't formally complain to Disney about individual CMs. I can't see how this is Disney's fault , nor the fault of the CMs. Your family's sensitivities and sense of violation were probably very high immediately following the theft, and impressions of the CMs were filtered through those sensitivities, likely making any perceived fault seem much more egregious than in reality.

Good job filing a formal police report for all the reasons already mentioned...

 

[Sammie]

I really hate this happened to you, but sadly it is a statement of the times we live in.

There was a time this would not have happened at Disney and if it did, it would have been handled differently. Sadly we do not live in that world anymore even at Disney World.

Also sadly many, not saying this is the case for you and your family but at Disney there is a false sense of security. Crimes happen at Disney World every day and yes some of them are assisted by staff.

Since the lock was not use to enter the room, there is no way Disney is going to take any blame and even if it was not sure they would share that info. They would probably just deal with it internally.

So the only good that can come from your experience is to warn others.

When you travel anywhere, even Disney, leave valuables at home. There is no safe place to hide them. If you must take them, lock them in the front desk safe, not the room safe.

Everytime you leave the room, check the patio/balcony door and check to make sure your outside door closes.

Lesson learned the hard way, I never travel with anything I am not willing to lose.

I hope you get resolution with your insurance but sadly some things are not a monetary loss but sentimental.

 

[Chuck S]

Hotel theft is nothing new, nor is it necessarily a sign of the times. I remember 40+ years ago hearing from friends that they put some jewelry deep in a jar of cold cream, and it was stolen from their rooms in Las Vegas. This was before the days of electronic key systems, so no way to know to check if staff had entered he room or not.

 

[WolfpackFan]

One time while staying at AKV, we came back in the middle of the day to find our door open. We walked in and a housekeeper was in there with a "friend" and they were watching TV. All our stuff was out and in plain view of this "friend". They immediately left just as soon as we got there. I checked and nothing was stolen but I felt very uncomfortable knowing that some one who was not supposed to be there was in our room. I didn't report it (I know I should have). But it just goes to show you that people do get into your room sometimes who are not supposed to be there.

In this case, I'm just wondering if the door wasn't pulled completely shut and someone got in that way. As far as being in the bottom of the duffel, for theives I would think that would be the first place they would look for valuables. When you think about it, it is a wonder this doesn't happen more often. I wonder if you walked down any long hallway in a resort what number of rooms you could get into with the door not shut completely. All you have to do is hang around a hallway and watch who leaves a room and if they have a bunch of kids check that door.

 

[Sammie]

Hotel theft is nothing new, nor is it necessarily a sign of the times. I remember 40+ years ago hearing from friends that they put some jewelry deep in a jar of cold cream, and it was stolen from their rooms in Las Vegas. This was before the days of electronic key systems, so no way to know to check if staff had entered he room or not.

I think it is a sign of the times at Disney, yes it has happened for years in other locations.

But for years this would not have occurred at Disney. Statistically WDW had very few issues with theft for many years.

ChuckS we know Vegas had problems from the beginning, it is Sin City.

 

[kid-at-heart]

I am sorry your sister's family had to experience the invasion of their privacy and the lost of their items.

 

[DisFor20]

sadly it is a statement of the times we live in.

According to the Department of Justice, crime in general (and burgalry and theft in particular) have DROPPED CONTINUALLY and DRAMATICALLY over the last 35 years. We actually live at a time in which crime is MUCH LESS than it has been in past decades in which the vast majority of us have lived.

Here are the stats:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Property

 

[Sammie]

According to the Department of Justice, crime in general (and burgalry and theft in particular) have DROPPED CONTINUALLY and DRAMATICALLY over the last 35 years. We actually live at a time in which crime is MUCH LESS than it has been in past decades in which the vast majority of us have lived.

Here are the stats:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Property

I am talking only about Disney World and I know this to be true due to having friends in management at the resorts and many have been there for 20years. Crime at Disney World has increased.

 

[edk35]

According to the Department of Justice, crime in general (and burgalry and theft in particular) have DROPPED CONTINUALLY and DRAMATICALLY over the last 35 years. We actually live at a time in which crime is MUCH LESS than it has been in past decades in which the vast majority of us have lived.

Here are the stats:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Property

My husband is an FBI agent and he laughed at this.

 

[DisFor20]

I am talking only about Disney World and I know this to be true due to having friends in management at the resorts and many have been there for 20years. Crime at Disney World has increased.

I would love to see your facts. Here are the best I could find after searching for a few minutes...and yes, they show that both total crime and burglary (the type of crime the OP described) are down in Kissimmee FL (the best proxy for Walt Disney World I could find). While crime in Central FL is higher than the national average, THE DATA show the burglary rate per 100,000 people fell from 2005.3 in 1999 to 1409.0 in 2007 (a 29.7% reduction). To be fair, the rate did rise in 2007 from 1101.6 in 2006, and data for 2008 weren't listed. Here's the web site:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Kissimmee-Florida.html

Again, facts not anecdotes would help all form their own opinions. Cheers!

 

[DisFor20]

My husband is an FBI agent and he laughed at this.

Your husband and his teammates are doing a great job! Thanks for his service.

For your home state, according to Maryland state crime reports, all types of reported crime have fallen over the last 35 years. Since we are talking about burglary in this case, you will be happy to know that not only have the total number of burglaries gone down (despite the population growing by 38.5%), but the rate per 100,000 inhabitants has gone down 40.6% from 1972-2007 (the last year I could quickly find data for). Here is the web site. Make sure you look at the rates per 100,000 inhabitants since this controls for population growth and shows the real crime rate. Cheers!
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/mdcrime.htm