BREAKING NEWS: Florida Men Receive Fines, Probation and Lifetime Disney Ban in Florida Theft Case
This just in! Last year here at MickeyBlog covered the story of an ex-Disney employee accused of stealing several items from theme park include those from Epcot and Haunted Mansion and then selling them on auction sites for a high price. The accused, Patrick Spikes entered a plea deal today (February 4, 2019) for stealing and selling on the $7000 worth of costumes and props.
Above you can see one of the costumes taken from the Haunted Mansion attraction which Spikes posted online. He was arrested in May of 2019.
Both men are ordered to pay a total of more than $25,000 in restitution. Spikes indicated he would be paying his cousin’s share. Spikes must perform 250 hours of community service, 125 hours for Taunton. Both men are also barred from returning to any #Disney property. #News6
— Mike DeForest (@DeForestNews6) February 4, 2020
As you can see from the Tweets above, Spikes pled no contest in court his morning. For his sentence, he was assigned 10 years of probation and 250 hours of community service. His accomplice, his cousin Blayton Taunton was also ordered to receive 5 years of probation and 125 hours of community service.
Bayton Taunton
In addition, both men have been ordered to pay fines of $25,000 in restitution with Spikes indicating he would cover the fee for both he and his cousin. Both men have also received a lifetime ban from any Disney property.
As reported last year, the story rocked the Disney community and gained media attention when animatronics turned up missing from a now-defunct Epcot attraction called Cranium Command as well as costumes from the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
Orange County police narrowed in on Spikes as the primary suspect as a result of him posting photos of backstage and off-limits areas of Walt Disney World under his Twitter moniker @BackDoorDisney. These postings eventually led authorities to charge Spike and Taunton with theft as images shared coincided with costumes and other items reported missing.
Last Spring the Orange County Sheriff’s Office obtained permission to search Spike’s home to locate the missing items. On August 26th, Spikes was formally charged with burglary of a structure.
This is a story we’ll be following closely. Readers are encouraged to keep checking in with MickeyBlog for the latest Walt Disney World news and updates.
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