Man Arrested After Impersonating Disney Cast Member, Stealing $10,000 ‘Star Wars’ Droid
Orange
County Fla July 1 2022
A Florida man was arrested after he impersonated a Disney World Cast Member to steal a $10,000 R2-D2 droid, all in the hopes that Disney’s security team would hire him.
According to the Orange County Circuit Court Records, the man identified as 44-year-old David Proudfoot of Kissimmee, Fla. was charged with theft of $100 or more; received two charges of grand theft in the 3rd-degree; was charged with obstruction by false information; as well as scheming to defraud.
On May 31, Disney security witnessed Proudfoot pushing a cart backstage on Epcot Resorts Boulevard at the Swan Reserve. He was wearing a Disney World Cast Member name tag and an orange hi-vis vest.
The police report states a security guard offered to help Proudfoot with the cart as he appeared lost and didn’t appear to know the proper procedures to enter the loading dock. Due to his suspicious behavior, the security guard called the local police.
At the time, Proudfoot alleged his name was David Rodgers, a worker at Disney World’s Yacht Club Resort’s Receiving Division and that his boss was located in Burbank, Calif.
Disney security told police that there was no one at The Walt Disney Company with that name. When the officers took him to the Yacht Club Resort, he got lost and failed to open “his employee locker.”
After a three-and-a-half-hour charade, Proudfoot revealed his real name to the authorities and admitted that he moved an R2-D2 droid that was worth thousands of dollars from the Swan Reserve’s third floor to an “unknown location” inside the resort.
He had also stolen a $3,500 arcade game called Duck Catcher from another hotel, the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel.
Proudfoot explained to authorities that he had applied to Walt Disney World Security for a job and simply wanted to move the items to “show weaknesses in the security of the resorts in the hope of securing a better paying job at WDW.”
From ride malfunctions to guest outbursts and Animatronic fails, these incidents at Disney theme parks were so not Mickey Mouse-approved.
