stroller theft?

[Eeyore1928]

Has anyone ever had or heard of thrie personal stroller from home being stolen at the parks?

 

[disneysteve]

I'm willing to bet that it happens from time to time, but as many times as we've gone and everyone we know has gone, I have never heard from anyone who had it happen. I honestly think it isn't a significant problem.

That said, however, I see a lot of folks totally throwing caution to the wind when they park their strollers. They leave all types of items clearly visible in the basket, the seat, hanging on the handles, etc. While you have no choice but to leave the stroller, I don't think that means you should leave souvenirs, cameras, and various other valuables behind. Use some common sense and take that stuff with you.

Steve

 

[BevS97]

I agree with Steve. We leave the stroller and coolbag etc without a worry, but our cameras and other valuables are kept in a small bag which hangs on the handlebars, when we leave the stroller we can grab that bag and take the valuables with us.

Bev

 

[Jacksmom99]

We have been 3 times with our own stroller, and have never experienced a problem, nor have I heard about personal strollers being taken. I have however, heard about rental strollers being taken. It seems people will respect personal property, but not rental. All the strollers look the same, and they don't feel like trying to find theirs after the CMs have moved it while they were on a ride. It's no big deal if that happens though, you can get a replacement at no charge.

I do agree not to leave personal items in the stroller, but you have to put something on it that distinguishes it as yours. I bought a brightly colored toy that is supposed to hang on the handle of the infant seat for a baby to play with. The toy cost around $7.00 and I put it on the handle of the stroller. It was very easy to see my black Graco stroller in the sea of strollers where ever we parked it. All strollers look the same, navy blue, black, ect... people may inadvertantly grab the wrong one unless there is something very clearly identifying it as yours, but I don't think the WDW is filled with stroller thieves looking to corner the market.

 

[Kermit]

There have been reports here of people having their personal strollers taken, but those reports are few and far between. I have to wonder if most of them were actually stolen or if someone just got confused because they had similar strollers. I agree that doing something to distinguish your strollers from the others is important.

If you take a nice one that would be expensive to replace, you might consider taking a bicycle lock (as long as your wheels aren't solid with no gaps). You aren't allowed to lock your stroller <i>to</i> anything, but you can lock one of the front wheels to one of the back wheels. Someone could technically steel it, but they'd have to roll it on one side, so they'd just steel one that was easier to push.

 

[eaturpasta]

We were on Splash Mountain and when we went to get our stroller...it was gone! Luckily we did not leave any personal items with it...but we waited 45 minutes for someone to come back with it...no luck...but there was one just like ours still sitting there when we left. I know it wasnt ours because we had mickey stickers all over ours! The next trip we will be tying a balloon to our new stroller, easier to find too!

 

[melee]

Hi,
I tied a big tangle of curling ribbon just below one of the handle grips on our umbrella stroller. It was cheap, light weight and very visible. During our first trip we came out of Minnie's house and found that some one had left a brand new toy in our stroller. I'm sure a child was told to leave it in their stroller and tossed it in ours by mistake. We dropped it at lost and found but felt bad for the child who left it behind. Soooo, if you leave items, make sure you put them in your own stroller!

 

[cinmell]

My friend's stroller was taken in June from CRT. That's the only report of a stolen stroller I've heard of. We brought our stroller in September and had no problems. My stroller was expensive so I used a lock for the wheels the first half of the vacation, then I didn't bother the second half. I tied ribbons on the handle so I could distinguish our stroller from others.

 

[Muffy]

Unfortunatly it does happen, even at WDW.

 

[undertheradar]

We didn't have our stroller taken, it was the baby blanket in the basket. Our daughter was 6 months old and we left her Pooh blanket in the basket while riding Snow White. We exited the ride to find the baby blanket missing. We were lucky, someone turned it into Guest Relations later that week and Disney sent it to us. We have always assumed that a small child picked it up and the parents noticed the error when getting ready to exit the park.

 

[AprilsZoo]

We had our stroller stolen at DisneyLand the last time we went. Actually it appeared someone had "exchanged" their broken stroller for our new one.

At first we thought someone had allowed their child to stand in the seat and broken/collapsed/ripped the seat, but as we inspected it more we realised it wasn't ours at all. Although ours was only a couple weeks old, I had already lost the snap-on latch that keeps the stroller folded, & the one left in place of ours had the latch, it also had white intead of navy blue tires and adhesive residue where a sticker had been removed. So we were pretty sure that it wasn't just a case of mistaken identity.

We told a CM and they gave us a voucher for a free rental, and they notified security and we went to L&F and filled out the paperwork just in case someone "borrowed" it for the day and had an attack of conscience and left it behind on the way out. (L&F CM said that they find literally DOZENS of strollers abandoned every night -- people's personal strollers, NOT the rentals!!) Most are never claimed; sometimes parents call saying they forgot it when they left.
I'm not sure how you "forget" your stroller... but one hopes they remembered the child that went with it

We checked back a couple times over the next week, but it was never found.

Luckily it wasn't an expensive stroller. I was more upset by the violated feeling I had -- that someone would have the nerve to do that. What were they thinking? They had to know we would notice.

Anyway ... we got the rental, went about our day, and tried to push out the negative thoughts about whoever took it by telling ourselves that they must have been in a pretty desperate situation to do something like that and we try to help those in need anyway, so .... But still, everytime we passed a group of parked strollers, I just had to scan through and try to recognize ours. I couldn't just forget it, so it did distract us for the rest of the day.

I like the idea of attaching something to the stroller to make it uniquely yours. (Ours was probably an easy take just because it was so non-descript. Just a lonely stroller sitting all alone) Those flags they have for bikes & bike trailers come to mind (I want one for my powerchair too) Or maybe one of those cutsie license plates, etc.

I have heard of someone who put a disposable diaper that was not used, but was folded as if it were, in the seat, or in a bag hanging from the handle (can't remember now) to discourage others from wanting to abscond with her stroller.
I guess that might work, but you'd sure get some weird looks I bet!!

 

[phins_jazy]

Originally posted by AprilsZoo

I have heard of someone who put a disposable diaper that was not used, but was folded as if it were, in the seat, or in a bag hanging from the handle (can't remember now) to discourage others from wanting to abscond with her stroller.
I guess that might work, but you'd sure get some weird looks I bet!!

I've heard of people using a disposable diaper and pouring rootbeer in it to make it look like a nasty diaper and tying it to the handlebars or leaving it in the seat. Icky but bet it would work.

 

[Grand Canyon]

We have taken our personal stroller with us for the last seven years. The last three years it was an expensive double stroller (a RunAbout). We would usually place a bike lock on the front wheel, like mentioned above, on the double stroller. It can still be moved but not easily.
It's definitely not smart to leave stuff out in the open. We carry a large bag on the handle we can stuff everything we really couldn't stand losing into - and grab it when we go in at a stop.

I wouldn't worry at all - but I think every trip I've over heard someone who 'lost' their stroller.
Even balloons don't work well for marking your stroller - especially at MK - where every one gets them.
One of those bike flags seems to work well.

 

[All Aboard]

Our stroller was taken (along with the full backpack hanging from the handles) in Feb of 2000. That was the last time I left anything I wanted to keep on the stroller, now I lug the backpack into every attraction. I called Lost and Found daily for a week afterward. Neither the stroller nor backpack ever showed up.

In 2001, we came out of Pirates to find our stroller missing, but an identical but dirtier one sitting there. I trodded all around the Magic Kingdom until finally finding it parked outside Pinocchio's Village Haus. I swapped back for ours. I'm sure the other guests never knew anything happened.

 

[raidermatt]

Yeah, apparently it does happen, and you are at much greater risk if you leave personal items in the stroller.

We bought one of those lightweight umbrella type strollers, and we don't leave anything in it that we would be upset to lose.

We thought someone had taken it a couple of times, but it turned out to be CMs re-arranging...

 

[Geoff_M]

Our "secret" is we use our old, but reliable, stoller. It's weathered and isn't likely to be an attractive target for anyone trying to steal one, nor is it likely to be confused for someone else's stroller. I read about a lot of people buying top-of-the-line new models for their WDW trips, and I wouldn't advise they do that.