Disney worker caught stealing from hotel rooms, deputies say

[Tekneek]

Now if I lock my stuff in a safe and someone steals it anyway? That's a different story.

That is the issue. Disney specifically mentions this as a place to store valuables and there is some expectation that these items will be secure.

[Opus X]

I'm not implying that people should "expect" things to be stolen from their rooms, but personally if I left cash or expensive electronics out in my room and they were stolen I'd blame myself more than anyone else.

And the funny thing is, I do it all the time. I always leave my laptops out in my room and, even though I try to hide them away, the kids iPads are usually left behind, as well.

Now if I lock my stuff in a safe and someone steals it anyway? That's a different story.

Yep..thats my opinion about it all.
Cash...is always with me.. (we mostly dont need much though) we charge back to room. I think we all try to "hide" the iPads and such...but cash..I NEVER leave it. If i did...yeah, id use the safe. But even then....eh, I just like to have my cash with me.

[Ian]

We make extensive use of our safe and I expect it to be secure. If you're in WDW for a long stay you can have literally thousands of dollars in cash on you ... I'm not walking around the parks with that much money. God forbid I drop my wallet on Space Mountain or something.

We only take small amounts of cash out with us every day. The rest we lock up "safely" in the safe. Or so we thought ...............

[AvonleaCF]

I never use the safe. I just hide the valuables.

I also leave daily cash tips (in a clearly marked envelope); hopefully that little gesture would stop someone from stealing if I'm giving them cash.

[1DisneyNut]

For all of you posting that housekeepers do not have access and do not have a key, do you have any idea how simple it would actually be if you worked there on a daily basis?

It is as simple as taking the key from the room when you clean it after guests have checked out and prior to new guest checking in. You keep that key and mark it with the room number. Odds are they have spares at guest services and when a guest calls saying they can't find the key, they send up a new one.

The would be thief housekeeper then takes another key from another room a week later. Compare it to the first key they took. Are they different keys or does the hotel use the same key on every safe? If different, mark that key with the room number. A week later take another key and compare to the first two.

I would be willing to bet, that the hotel uses no more than 5 keys to keep replacing them simple. It wouldn't take long and you would have all five. They most likely never ever re-key the locks because that would become expensive over time. If nothing else, the housekeeper would eventually be able to collect the keys for most if not all the rooms they service and could have the room numbers on them. Most of you don't realize it but many large homebuilders do the same thing with exterior door locks on homes they build. It is not uncommon for several houses on a street to have the exact same key. lol

As for the electronic locks some hotels have, there is a master code. For simplicity, the master code is going to most likely be something you could figure out with some time, something like 0000, 1234, 0987, the last four digits of the hotels phone number, four digits of the hotels address, etc.

[Dulcee]

This is why my nice jewelry stays home and all of our vacation expenses are put on credit cards to be paid off at the end of the trip.

Even in the best of places people can become desperate or stupid when opportunity presents itself.

[brownie]

There's a master code for those electronic safes. If it's not changed from the default or from time to time, it's probably not hard to get it, or get a master key for the safes, from somewhere. If I had to guess, the housekeeper was probably using a master code to access the room safe. I can't remember if there's a key lock on those safes; if there isn't she probably wasn't picking any locks.

[Lakin]

It's unfortunate that poeple feel the need to steal from others, but if I have valuables, they stay home or I keep them on me at all times. I don't bring much on vacation as a result, but I've not missed it.

Otherwise, the thieves are welcome to my dirty clothes, trash and other deitrus that my hotel room collects. Doubty they'd get anything out of it, but with some people, you just never know.

Same! I couldn't imagine bringing electronics with me just to leave them in the room. If I really need to bring something with me badly enough, then it's probably something I'd be willing to lug to the parks with me.

[Patricia]

I have always left my Mabook out in every hotel I've stayed in since owning it. Maybe I've just been lucky. We seldom have cash and never jewelry in the room, but we do keep our wallets and passports in the safe.. I'd be in trouble if my ID went missing.

[BrerGnat]

We make extensive use of our safe and I expect it to be secure. If you're in WDW for a long stay you can have literally thousands of dollars in cash on you ... I'm not walking around the parks with that much money. God forbid I drop my wallet on Space Mountain or something.

Ian, are you serious? You carry that much CASH on you at WDW? Why?

I am honestly curious why you wouldn't just use credit cards or the room charge option instead.

[texas211]

I travel a lot. LIke Gold status on several airlines.

You can only do so much. If I leave stuff in the room, I put in back in my briefcase or suitcase. Just to keep the casual passerbys from grabbing something while the maid is there. As far as the maid, I assume they have access to the safe as they are employees there (its just how that kind of thing works out).

Best to keep it out of site. Exceptions, I do try an always bring my firearms with me. I once left my backup on the desk and had the hotel manager wanting to talk w/ me when I got back.

Another good place. Pile your dirty underwear up. Make them earn that cash if they want it. I had 2 weeks of dirty sweaty boxers in my laundry bag, put my cash in there. No one is getting it.

[AndrewJackson]

We keep our electronics in the room, usually in a laptop case. (Laptop, iPad, DS, etc.). Have never had a problem.

We never keep cash in the room. Like others have said, we take a minimum amount, and charge just about everything to the room.

The cash we do bring stays locked in the glovebox, and locked in the car.

[1DisneyNut]

Ian, are you serious? You carry that much CASH on you at WDW? Why?

I am honestly curious why you wouldn't just use credit cards or the room charge option instead.

I understand why he does completely. I always have at least $2000 cash on me at any given time. When I go on vacations, I usually have more; usually enough to cover the entire vacation without a concern if a problem was to arise. I pay with cards, the cash is for emergency situations. It concerns me more to not have cash than it does to carry large amounts.

The reason, credit cards/debit cards depend on a lot of technology (networks, phone lines, internet, uplinks, satellites, etc). We have found ourselves in a position twice while out of town, where credit card/debit card systems were down. Once I was trying to get gas. I had cash in my pocket, so no worries.

[Ian]

Ian, are you serious? You carry that much CASH on you at WDW? Why?

I am honestly curious why you wouldn't just use credit cards or the room charge option instead.

Ha ha ha ... you misunderstood my post. I said "you" in the sense of "people." Wasn't speaking about myself (although reading my post over I can see how it would sound like that).

But I mean on a typical trip we'd still have $1,000 or more in cash with us for a 10 day stay. You need cash for tips, money for the kids to spend, etc.

[Arielfan98]

I knew this would happen at some point. I have been staying at All Star Music my entire life and always had this little fear in the back of my mind. I stayed there for a week in mid August and thankfully nothing had been stolen and from previous trips. I am glad this woman has been caught and I sure hope Disney installs "safer" safes since they seem to be advancing with technology.

[Mendelson]

She got tired of people saying Mousekeeping is a non-tipped position and decided to do something about it.

$1000 in cash? That's $100 a day (for your hypothetical ten-day stay)... we typically don't carry more than about $5 per day, but maybe we're atypical. We generally only need to tip in cash on the first and last day and everything else goes on the CC. Or, specifically, now on the (sigh) my MyMagic+ wristband.

[BrerGnat]

She got tired of people saying Mousekeeping is a non-tipped position and decided to do something about it.

$1000 in cash? That's $100 a day (for your hypothetical ten-day stay)... we typically don't carry more than about $5 per day, but maybe we're atypical. We generally only need to tip in cash on the first and last day and everything else goes on the CC. Or, specifically, now on the (sigh) my MyMagic+ wristband.

Yeah, I would SO never have $1000 in cash on me. Ever.

I take out $100 in cash for a week long WDW trip. $20 is usually in ones for the bellman who handles our luggage and for the shuttle drivers at the airport or something who do the same.

We leave $5 per day for housekeeping. The rest is just cash we have for random places that don't take cards (which isn't many at WDW), or for getting quarters for laundry or something. When our kids want something, they use their own cash or we just charge it to the room and then take their cash to pay us back.

I've never needed more than $200. I figure there are always ATMs if I need more than I have, and our bank refunds us up to $10/month in ATM fees, so it's no biggie to just take out more cash.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We're cash people at Disney. A lot of it (for us) has to do with the exchange rate. We have a US $ account, and move money around when the exchange rate is in our favour.

Then, we take the cash with us, and use it for drinks, tips, etc. It helps keep the spending in check, we don't get a surprise bill at the end of the trip, and we know what rate we're getting.

We leave the cash, along with our wallets and passports locked up in the safe (and take the key with us), but that may not be as safe as we'd like to think.

[Mickey'sGirl]

We're cash people at Disney. A lot of it (for us) has to do with the exchange rate. We have a US $ account, and move money around when the exchange rate is in our favour.

Then, we take the cash with us, and use it for drinks, tips, etc. It helps keep the spending in check, we don't get a surprise bill at the end of the trip, and we know what rate we're getting.

We leave the cash, along with our wallets and passports locked up in the safe (and take the key with us), but that may not be as safe as we'd like to think.

Same with us. The passports are the most important things.

[DVC2004]

What bugs me the most about this is how people have access to your in room safe. Guess I won't be bringing anything of value with me ever again. What a violation, to think someone can enter your locked safe.