Late last year Disney fans were horrified to learn that the Buzzy animatronic from the long-closed Cranium Command attraction had been stolen by a nefarious individual, who reportedly was a former Disney employee and used their former access to make off with the piece of Disney history.
And though Buzzy’s story hasn’t quite come to a satisfying conclusion just yet, a reported suspect in the Buzzy investigation was actually found to have stolen several items from the Haunted Mansion attraction, and had been selling them illegally to fans online, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Image: Disney
And unfortunately, though this individual was arrested, it looks like a dangerous trend may have started, as even more items have been reported stolen from Walt Disney World as recently as this month, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Pieces of Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s Flight have been reported missing
Image: Disney
According to the report from the Orlando Sentinel above, last week a Disney employee noticed a set of sails from Peter Pan’s Flight had been taken from a storage shed behind Epcot’s Test Track ride. The same employee then noticed, upon closer inspection, that the sails were not the only items missing, as a “shell” and three seats from Space Mountain were also missing from the storage area.
Walt Disney World has officially listed these items as missing, and is valuing the total worth of all the pieces at $20,000, according to the report.
Suspicious conditions
Image: Disney
The conditions surrounding this latest theft are definitely eyebrow-raising, as the items that were taken had been kept in a padlocked storage facility that had a security fence around it. Unfortunately, this likely means that someone with some kind of backstage access is responsible for the theft, as most guests are not able to easily navigate to this type of secure location from guest areas.
In addition, these items are quite large, and would be difficult to take out of the front gates of Epcot without someone noticing (especially the Peter Pan sails), which means that some kind of backstage route must have been used to get these items out of the park and eventually off Disney property.
As you would expect, Disney is working with the local police to try and locate these missing items, while not officially commenting on the situation or releasing any statements about this missing attraction parts.
The dark side of the Disney memorabilia market
Image: Joe Pennison, Flickr
Though most collectors of Disney memorabilia are happy to stick to buying items from reputable merchants, official storefronts and well-known secondhand sellers, unfortunately the appearance of a “black” secondhand market for stolen pieces of Disney attractions has made formerly secure areas of Walt Disney World unfortunately more attractive to thieves looking to make some serious money.
As mentioned previously, the most recent stolen items are being valued at $20,000 and though that might sounds like a lot at first for just some random parts of attractions, there is some precedent for this high estimate. Though exact figures aren’t known, the pieces of the Haunted Mansion attraction that were sold in the first incident reported earlier this year fetched a hefty pricetag online, reportedly selling for over $8000.
The investigation of this latest theft is still ongoing, but we’d guess that security backstage at Walt Disney World is about to get a lot tighter to try and avoid these issues in the future.
