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Guest drops Apple Watch on Disney World ride, claims $40,000 in fraudulent credit card charges

Walt Disney World doesn’t always turn out to be “The Most Magical Place on Earth” for everyone. One woman made a costly mistake after dropping her Hermès Apple Watch while vacationing at the Disney theme park in Orlando.

This is what we know according to a report from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and WDW News Today:

While riding The Seas with Nemo & Friends in EPCOT last month, the woman was fidgeting with her Hermès Apple Watch. The ride is generally slow and while in an elevated position, the watch came off of her wrist. Unfortunately for her, this is quite an expensive device – worth about $1,300, much more than a standard Apple Watch.

As the watch fell off the ride, it dropped onto a pathway below. She could see her watch nearby, however, it was just a tad too far out of reach. Violating safety protocols, her husband jumped off the moving ride, trying to retrieve it. A cast member stopped the ride to remind the couple that’s not allowed and assured them that Disney would return the watch to their hotel.

Disney couldn’t find her Apple Watch

According to the Sheriff’s report, the woman had several credit cards linked to her watch, including an American Express with an unlimited credit line. When returning to Disney’s Contemporary Resort, she was told by cast members that they did not have her Apple Watch. However, someone had it as she later found a series of fraudulent alerts.

She had “several fraud alerts throughout the course of the day on her Amex card. According to the victim, there was approximately $40,000 of fraudulent charges on her card,” said the report. The woman did shut down her credit cards in Apple Pay, but we don’t know the timeline of when she did.

There’s no information on what the thief bought with the $40,000 or who that person was.

9to5Mac’s Take

This entire situation feels a bit suspicious. I have worked on a ride in EPCOT at Disney before and if a guest lost a non-essential item like an Apple Watch, we’d leave the item where it’s at and ask them to retrieve it at the end of the day. Where could the watch have gone? Also, how could the thief have gain access to her Apple Pay? It feels likely that she had an easy-to-guess password on her watch. Or, possibly, there could’ve been a fluke in which the watch believed it was still on her wrist. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of answers we don’t know.

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