Over $40,000 Stolen from Disney Guest After Nemo Ride Incident

Every Disney Guest at the Walt Disney World Resort wants a magical Disney vacation.

We all try and prevent accidents and incidents from happening – from packing sunscreen and a first-aid kit to giving safety talks to young children. 

But it’s not often that Guests at Walt Disney World are met with fraud incidents, especially after losing something on the slow-moving Seas with Nemo & Friends ride at EPCOT.

According to a report from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (as reported by SebastianDaily), a mistake on a popular EPCOT attraction cost a Disney Park Guest more than $40,000.

The interesting report reveals that a woman visiting Walt Disney World on April 13, 2022, lost her Apple watch while enjoying The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride at EPCOT theme park. The slow-moving Finding Nemo (2003) attraction was in an elevated position when the watch popped off her wrist, the woman said.

The Apple Hermès watch (worth $1,300) apparently fell through the grated floor on the EPCOT ride onto a pathway below. The woman could see her watch but could not reach it, so her husband jumped off the moving ride vehicle to attempt to retrieve it.

This is, of course, a prohibited action at the Walt Disney World Resort Parks, and so Cast Members stopped the Nemo ride temporarily to speak to the couple. According to the sheriff’s report, the Disney Cast Member assured them that Disney would return the Apple watch to them at their hotel – Disney’s Contemporary Resort near the Magic Kingdom Park.

The issue, the report states, is that the Disney Guest had multiple credit cards linked to the watch, including an American Express card with an unlimited credit line. The woman revealed she filed an incident immediately with Disney Guest Relations to see if anyone had retrieved the lost watch, but no one had turned it in. The report states that “The staff advised her that they did not have the watch.”

What came next changed the course of this Disney Park lost-and-found story. The Disney Guest received “several fraud alerts throughout the course of the day on her Amex card. According to the victim, there were approximately $40,000 of fraudulent charges on her card,” according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office report.

That’s right – $40,000 of fraudulent charges. The woman did the right thing and shut down the credit cards attached to the missing Apple watch and obviously wants to prosecute whoever made the charges on her card. She contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Office to report grand theft to the police, according to the report taken April 14. She was told to research the fraudulent charges so authorities could track where the card was used. Disney Security was also notified.

The woman’s name and other information are redacted on the sheriff’s report, which also doesn’t indicate what the thief bought for the whopping $40,000.

Next time you’re on a ride at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom, be sure to make sure your loose articles are secure – particularly watches and wallets that could lead to unfortunate fraud incidents.