Disney worker caught stealing from hotel rooms, deputies say

[DizneyFreak2002]

From Click Orlando:

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. - A Disney World hotel worker has been suspended without pay after being accused of stealing money from Disney's All Star Resorts.

Deputies say 29-year-old Bruna Francois, a housekeeper, was stealing money out of guests rooms. It was brought to their attention after receiving several complaints from guests that money had been taken out of their rooms, each of which were cleaned by Francois.

Disney security and Osceola County Sheriff's detectives set up a sting on Tuesday and planted $400 in cash with serial numbers on them inside a safe in the All Star Music Resort. Deputies recorded Francois accessing the safe and placing some of the stolen money inside her cellphone case.

Deputies found $20 missing from the safe and confronted Francois, but she denied ever stealing anything.

Arlan Little is visiting from Boston and spending a week at the resort. He says he was shocked to hear what happened.

“I'm blown away by it, actually, because Disney is usually up on their game on that type of stuff,” said Little. “It can happen anywhere, but I'm leery now. I'm worried about coming back next year.

Francois was charged with petit theft and theft by an employee.

Local 6 checked and Francois is already out of jail.

[SBETigg]

Wow, and that's from the room safe, which most of us would feel is pretty secure.

[Pastcastmemberdaughter]

Wow, and that's from the room safe, which most of us would feel is pretty secure.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I didn't even think that housekeeping had access to those safes to be honest with you. What's the point in having a safe if practically the only person that could get into it has a key to open it. I would think that management should be the only ones with spare keys to these safes. What a downer.

[DizneyFreak2002]

That's exactly what I was thinking. I didn't even think that housekeeping had access to those safes to be honest with you. What's the point in having a safe if practically the only person that could get into it has a key to open it. I would think that management should be the only ones with spare keys to these safes. What a downer.

Housekeeping does not have access to the safes... But a criminal/crook will ALWAYS find a way to commit their crime of choice, no matter how much precaution one takes...

[TinkerbellT421]

Didn't someone recently post a thread that their ipad was stolen out of their room?

Kind of sheds light on the fact that even though you are in disney doesn't mean that all cast members are morally nice people. It's amazing that even though the money was in the safe she still had access...we're these safes not locked or do housekeeping have a skeleton key that gives them access to all safes? Worth knowing because now I will be more aware of what I out in there.

[Pastcastmemberdaughter]

Housekeeping does not have access to the safes... But a criminal/crook will ALWAYS find a way to commit their crime of choice, no matter how much precaution one takes...

Ok that makes me feel a little better. The way I read the article made it sound to me like housekeeping had safe keys. I totally get the criminals always finding a way thing though. The article just had me a bit confused on wordings.

[Tekneek]

Housekeeping does not have access to the safes... But a criminal/crook will ALWAYS find a way to commit their crime of choice, no matter how much precaution one takes...

Indeed, but I would expect it to provide a little more security than it apparently does. Without disclosure of the method employed, I would have zero confidence in the reliability of them going forward.

[DizneyFreak2002]

Ok that makes me feel a little better. The way I read the article made it sound to me like housekeeping had safe keys. I totally get the criminals always finding a way thing though. The article just had me a bit confused on wordings.

The article was confusing... I agree with you... I believe only certain hotel management have master keys in case guests forget their codes or lose the key (All Star resorts still use key locked safes I believe)... Housekeeping should never have a key or master code...

Indeed, but I would expect it to provide a little more security than it apparently does. Without disclosure of the method employed, I would have zero confidence in the reliability of them going forward.

All the housekeeper had to do was pick the lock... Any lock can technically be picked by someone who knows what they are doing... And guests need to be smart when creating codes for the electronic safes... I bet most of those could be easily broken into as well because too many codes are too easy to guess right...

BTW, this isn't only a Disney resort problem... Happens in many upscale hotels too...

[Polynesian Dweller]

All the housekeeper had to do was pick the lock... Any lock can technically be picked by someone who knows what they are doing... And guests need to be smart when creating codes for the electronic safes... I bet most of those could be easily broken into as well because too many codes are too easy to guess right...

My hotelier hat on here. These crimes are crimes of opportunity for the most part not lock picking etc.

Many guests fail to lock/close the safe before leaving, others believe they've locked when they didn't and other reasons. All the maid had to do was tug the door of every safe of the rooms she was doing. If one opened then voila stuff to steal. If not, then nothing lost for her. Eventually she'd find one without the need to carry lock picking tools. With people's carelessness not hard really.

The big tip here is to make the last thing you do being check that the lock is securely closed and locked. Even the safest of us can forget to close that door.

And, housekeepers to not have access to the safes. They master keys and master codes are assigned to a very few people.

[SBETigg]

My hotelier hat on here. These crimes are crimes of opportunity for the most part not lock picking etc.

Many guests fail to lock/close the safe before leaving, others believe they've locked when they didn't and other reasons. All the maid had to do was tug the door of every safe of the rooms she was doing. If one opened then voila stuff to steal. If not, then nothing lost for her. Eventually she'd find one without the need to carry lock picking tools. With people's carelessness not hard really.

The big tip here is to make the last thing you do being check that the lock is securely closed and locked. Even the safest of us can forget to close that door.

And, housekeepers to not have access to the safes. They master keys and master codes are assigned to a very few people.

Good points. Considering that she was caught in a sting, there's a possibility that they deliberately put money in the safe but left it unlocked, following up on previous reports of money missing from rooms that she cleaned.

[DizneyFreak2002]

My hotelier hat on here. These crimes are crimes of opportunity for the most part not lock picking etc.

Many guests fail to lock/close the safe before leaving, others believe they've locked when they didn't and other reasons. All the maid had to do was tug the door of every safe of the rooms she was doing. If one opened then voila stuff to steal. If not, then nothing lost for her. Eventually she'd find one without the need to carry lock picking tools. With people's carelessness not hard really.

The big tip here is to make the last thing you do being check that the lock is securely closed and locked. Even the safest of us can forget to close that door.

And, housekeepers to not have access to the safes. They master keys and master codes are assigned to a very few people.

All great points! People do need to be much more careful with the safes... I always triple check before I leave, making sure the lock is LOCKED...

[Opus X]

If i left money in my room....and its stolen.
SHAME on me FIRST, then shame on the thief.
WHY would anyone leave money in the room.
YES, i HAVE left our iPad(s) in the room. Sort of hidden. I fully understand that if they are stolen...Bad mistake by me. But..no issues yet and we have been leavin things in the room since 1993.
But never cash....thats just idiotic.
And in the interview...Arlan Little stated...." Im leary about coming back next year"
Really? Please.

[Pirate Granny]

My I-pad always goes in the safe when we leave the room...only once I forgot and left the key in the lock...went back to retrieve it...

[Opus X]

My I-pad always goes in the safe when we leave the room...only once I forgot and left the key in the lock...went back to retrieve it...

Oh, yes...ours does also. But, i have left ipods...and such under some clothes..to kinda hide it.

[Ms. Mode]

If i left money in my room....and its stolen.
SHAME on me FIRST, then shame on the thief.
WHY would anyone leave money in the room.
YES, i HAVE left our iPad(s) in the room. Sort of hidden. I fully understand that if they are stolen...Bad mistake by me. But..no issues yet and we have been leavin things in the room since 1993.
But never cash....thats just idiotic.
And in the interview...Arlan Little stated...." Im leary about coming back next year"
Really? Please.

Well, call me "stupid" then, we always leave the extra cash in the safe. Why? Because we don't want to lose it in the parks...of course!

[FaithTrustPixieDust]

Makes me wonder how long this lady had been employed at WDW. . . . We had an iPod touch stolen from our room at POP in March, 2012. Granted, my kid left it out in plain sight . . . may as well have put a sticky note on it that read, "Free to a good home." I suppose it was a lesson the kid had to learn the hard way.

Anyway, it was likely assumed to be an iPhone, and they also grabbed whatever cords/chargers were nearby. It was either the Mousekeepers or whomever delivered a package to our room that day.

We reported it and WDW eventually reimbursed me for replacement costs, only after delaying me long enough to be reasonably sure I wasn't just disorganized or a scammer trying to take advantage of their deep pockets.

I never heard anything else about it, but I firmly believe that a thief will continue stealing until they are busted.

[BrerGnat]

I don't put much faith in hotel safes, to be honest. I think it's a much better choice to carefully hide objects of value in the room. I have my hiding spots and they have worked for me for YEARS.

If I do put stuff in the safe, I hide the key in the room too. I don't want to lose it. It's never been discovered yet.

[minnie04]

I look at it like this. People have the right to feel safe when leaving things in a Hotel room, BUT you are putting your belongings at risk of sometimes shady employees that see an opportunity and take it, thinking by the time you notice they are gone (meaning off or more than one other person in housekeeping has been in the room) so the chance of proof is really hard. I for one never take a lot of gadgets with me when we travel. I tell my Kids to leave all that at home or when we do take it. I always leave it in my car (hidden of course), but this is once in a while that we bring I pads etc. I don't really see the need to have all that on vacation. I’m on vacation to get away from the computers, IPads, ITouches, games etc. etc. the only thing we take is our phones. They pretty much can do all the above anyway so no need to take all that other stuff and worry about theft or breaking.

As far as the guy in the article not feeling safe enough to come back next year. REALLY GUY!!! Then stay home, because if you are thinking that this could never happen. WOW you must live in a perfect world that none of us know about. lol maybe that was just a ploy to get Disney to offer him something to come back.. Good try


Also call me crazy, but on some of our trips I won’t even have housekeeping come in. I will make the beds up myself in the morning and clean up the room (I hate a messy hotel room) and just ask for towels when I see them in the halls. This way the room is left exactly like I left it, so if something is out of place I know they snuck in AND then we have a problem.But so far it has never happened.

[LauraF]

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.

[Ian]

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.