When we hear of criminal activity at Walt Disney World, it’s not usually pertaining to an action sequence that feels like it’s come right out of a Disney movie itself. But that was apparently the case this week in Orlando, when over $10,000 was stolen from a Disney World restaurant by a scuba-diving criminal mastermind.
WFTV9 (via Cinemablend) reports that in the early hours of today, an unidentified man staged a robbery at the Paddlefish seafood restaurant in Disney Springs, a shopping and dining area that is part of the Walt Disney World resort. The restaurant is aboard a replica steamboat anchored on Lake Buena Vista, and current thinking, according to a report from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, is that the thief used scuba gear to swim in the lake up to the restaurant and secured their equipment before making their way to the restaurant’s manager’s office.
There, the perpetrator came across two staff members counting money from the restaurant’s earnings that night and depositing it into a safe. According to the report, the man forced the employees into a corner and told them to close their eyes (WFTV9, citing a source familiar with an unredacted version of the Sheriff Office’s report, alleges that the employees were tied up, although not threatened with a weapon). Somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 was then taken from the earnings before the thief left the office within two minutes. The employees managed to free themselves and call 911, but by that point, the mystery man had seemingly recovered his scuba gear and escaped via the lake.
Thankfully, no one was harmed during the robbery, and Paddlefish opened to Disney World guests today with no signs of disruption or increased security beyond Disney’s usual security efforts, according to WFTV9. But given Walt Disney Studio’s penchant for turning the attractions at its various parks into theatrical adventures—from Pirates of the Caribbean to Haunted Mansion, or the likes of Scarlett Johansson’s upcoming Tower of Terror project—whether or not the thief is found, this has all the makings of a potential Disney movie in its own right, given the peculiar way the theft went down. Or at the very least a Disney+ special! It’d be one way to try and recoup the losses if they’re never found.
For now, the perpetrator remains at large.