Walt Disney World Cast Member Charged With Misdemeanors After Stealing Almost $34,000 From Company

Shannen Ace

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Walt Disney World Cast Member Charged With Misdemeanors After Stealing Almost $34,000 From Company

A Walt Disney World Cast Member has been charged with two misdemeanors after stealing almost $34,000 from the company over a two-year period.

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According to Gabrielle Russon of the Orlando Sentinel, the 53-year-old woman had worked for Disney since 1990. According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office report, she stole $33,988 from Disney while working at the Transportation and Ticket Center between January 2017 and May 2019, at which point she was fired.

“The Defendant was responsible for issuing theme park tickets and MagicBands to guests wishing to enter the various Walt Disney World locations,” the sheriff’s report stated. “The Defendant would systematically activate the Disney MagicBands, collect cash from guests for the purchase and subsequently void the transactions and pocket the cash.”

Disney provided the sheriff’s office with financial documents, statements, and photographs for their investigation. A Disney investigator said the Cast Member stood out because she had lower cash sales and the number of MagicBands she activated did not match with how many she sold. In 2018, she sold 1,965 MagicBands, but activated 3,272.

Disney investigators caught the Cast Member by pretending to be guests picking up their tickets and MagicBands in the spring of 2019. During two undercover investigations, they paid with cash, were not given a receipt, and noted the Cast Member placed the cash to the side.

She ultimately admitted to stealing the $33,988. According to the report, she was “doing this to help pay bills and she had been sending her mother home $100 a month since her father passed away in 2017.”

Though the Sheriff’s Office said there was probable cause to charge the Cast Member with grand theft and scheme to defraud and Disney wished to press charges, she avoided a felony and jail time.

The state attorney’s office said there were “concerns” in the case. Their file stated it was lacking the scheme to defraud, she “did not obtain cash under false pretenses”, and “corpus issues with the estimate of ~$40K.”

In October, the Cast Member pleaded no contest to petit theft and was charged with misdemeanor theft for the cash she pocketed from the MagicBands sold to Disney investigators. She was placed on twelve-month probation, given a $273 fine, and is required to complete community service and a seminar on impulse control. She is banned from returning to Walt Disney World.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

39 thoughts on “Walt Disney World Cast Member Charged With Misdemeanors After Stealing Almost $34,000 From Company”

  1. A $273 fine? I didn’t read she would be required to pay the money back. She’s basically being slapped on the wrist. I guess crime does pay.

    • She was charged with petitt theft. They only charged her for what was sold to the investigators Wich probably totaled under $500. Not for the 34k since it was stated that it was hard to prove the intent to defraud and the actual price tag that disney was applying. Also since she catered out that son story the liberal forces of cali probably didn’t want to do anything to her since the big bad coprate disney hadoney to spare.

  2. STEAL All that money and, literally, NOTHING happens to you. Get some BALLs Disney! I’m applying for a job at WDW when applications are taken again.

    • Read the story. Disney wanted to press charges but the State’s Attorney didn’t do it. Disney is powerful but they are not the court system. Yet.

  3. “She was placed on twelve-month probation, given a $273 fine, and is required to complete community service and a seminar on impulse control.”

    What!? She steals $33,988 and just gets told to not do anything naughty over the next year and pay a $273 fine? People who have done far less have been punished far more harshly.

    • I completely agree with JSF.

      Assuming all of these facts are correct and that she is White, if a person of color had done this, it would be an entirely different story – – including grand theft, felony charges, restitution, banned for life from WDW properties, lose her retirement pension, etc.

      This puts WDW name and reputation in a very bad light and supports my belief that WDW is both sexist, racist, and discriminatory when it deals with these types of issues – – it should not matter what race, creed, color, sex, gender, ethnicity, or nationality a person is.

      A known, premeditated, repetitive crime was committed No one is above the law – – not even a serial thief.

      I believe in a fair, just, and equitable society and rules. DWD sends the wrong message and I would not longer support them.

    • And what color are you with that RIDICULOUS comment! Hmm, let me guess….. black? What does her being white have to do with anything??? Stop race baiting! Enough already!

    • This is a stupid comment. If you don’t think you’re getting paid enough, you can just steal the rest? How about getting a job somewhere else if you don’t like it. Her “excuse” is she was sending $100 to her mother each week, yet simple math shows she was stealing about $327 per week. I guess the rest was a “processing fee.”

    • People need to be paid better so the could at least support themselves. $10 isn’t going to cut it these days. Everything from rent to food and insurance are expensive.

  4. Disney likes to keep incidents out of the news but this person should have been made an example of . She steals $33K+ and only has to pay back a couple of hundred? That easy exit for the former cast member conveys the message to other cast members that if you want to pilfer Disney’s money, do it, and if caught, you’ll sign a few papers and pay a ridiculously small fee and get off with a little community service. Maybe this easy-exit cast member will go work for Universal at the ticket window next year?

  5. Maybe this incident should make Disney corporate consider the amount of wages they are actually paying their employees…?

    • So you’re defending her actions? She didn’t have to say “yes” to the job… I don’t understand why people don’t get that. You don’t have to say “yes”

    • The rate of your earnings should not determine if you steal from your employer or not. She applied for the job and accepted it at that rate of pay. How about getting a second job or go back to school to obtain better employment like the rest of us do?

  6. Cast Members are real people…

    They come with problems and faults that exists in the real world.

    Real world problems and struggles cause real people to do things sometimes out of desperation; not an excuse, but fact.

    It is a sad story on many levels, however, it becomes news worthy only because she worked at Disney World…??

    The illusion of innocent purity at Disney World should not be tarnished by such stories; but it should be understood that people are not perfect, and they often fail in life.

    Forgiveness is required when dealing with the human being; this is how lessons are learned.

    As far as justice goes, justice is not fair or equal for all….

    Those with money and influence or power, never see the inside of a courtroom…

    Prosecutors can choose to simply not prosecute, regardless if the victim wants to or not, so only the poor average guy is made example of.

    Those who steal big money everyday, you never hear of.

  7. People re read the article. She is NOT being charged for the 34k because the COURT stated that there was no “proof” of intent to defraud disney and that they had issues with the amount disney was staying. Disney had balls the courts choked when she advised her little sob story

  8. Though the Sheriff’s Office said there was probable cause to charge the Cast Member with grand theft and scheme to defraud and Disney wished to press charges, she avoided a felony and jail time.

    The state attorney’s office said there were “concerns” in the case. Their file stated it was lacking the scheme to defraud, she “did not obtain cash under false pretenses”, and “corpus issues with the estimate of ~$40K.”.
    That being said in cali it is more likely right now that the offender was most likely a minority due to the heavy anti white sentiment in california and nation wide.

  9. The difference here is that this cast member got too greedy , greedy enough to catch attention of upper management. She had other motives than taking care of her mom.
    That being said why isn’t chapek going to jail for diverting millions of dollars from hourly cast members accounts to his account

  10. It sounds like they would have had difficulty proving the thefts. They only charged her for what the undercover people witnessed.

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