A man has been charged for living out all of our childhood dreams: setting up camp in a Disney World attraction.
The 42-year-old man from Mobile, Alabama was arrested last Thursday for trespassing when he tried to camp on Wald Disney World Florida’s Discovery Island.
The former zoological park has been closed since 1999, 25 years after it opened in 1974. The New York Times reported that in its hay day the park featured “aromatic foliage, trees and flowers”, walkthrough aviaries with more than 500 species of birds, a flamingo lagoon, turtle beach and alligator swamp.
According to an arrest report seen by NYT, a security worker for Dinsey told police she had seen a man using a boat to get to the island, which was off-limits to the public and featured signs warning against trespassing.
The man told police he reached the island on Monday or Tuesday and planned to stay there for about a week. He said he was unaware the area was restricted and said it looked “like a tropical paradise”.
However, the man later denied he had been camping there and said he was an urban explorer gathering footage for his YouTube channel.
Police told the man they had been searching for him on foot, by boat and air, and used a public address system to warn him to leave the island. He said he did not see or hear them as he was sleeping in one of the buildings on the island.
The man has since been banned from all Disney World properties.
All Disney theme parks around the world have been closed since mid-march in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Featured image source: Google Maps
