There are those of us who are destined for home confinement because of the new coronavirus pandemic, and there are those who are a little more risky and decide to take their dream vacation in an abandoned amusement park. Such is the case of Richard McGuire.
McGuire, a 42-year-old man from Mobile, Alabama, ended up handcuffed last week by police officers in Florida after camping for several days in the former zoo, according to authorities.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office began searching for MCGuire last Thursday, when a Disney security representative said she saw the man while using a company boat in the island area.
The woman added that the area, located in the company’s tourist complex in Orlando, was closed to the public, and that several signs indicated this.
It was not so easy to locate him. Police used a loud speaker to warn McGuire to leave the island, but received no response, according to various media.
Several officers also searched for him “on foot, by boat, and by air,” before one of them located him later that day, he said. At the time, staff members of The Walt Disney Company were escorting him ashore while in a boat.
The man claimed that he did not listen to the agents who were looking for him because he was sleeping in one of the buildings on the island. He also told police that he found him that he was unaware of being in a restricted area. “It seemed like a tropical paradise ,” were his words, reported in a police report quoted in different media.
McGuire has been detained on a lesser charge of trespassing, according to The New York Times. Access to any property of The Walt Disney Company will be prohibited. The Associated Press reported Friday that he was transferred to prison without incident.
Noticias Telemundo has not located his name among current detainees in Orange County, either through the Florida Department of Corrections search system or in the federal inmate database.
“Why did you go to that place and what did you want to do there?” The police report of his arrest states that he himself said that he had been on the island since Monday or Tuesday and intended to stay there camping for a week. According to AP, he wanted to quarantine there amid the global coronavirus crisis.
However, on Sunday the man denied that he wanted to camp and said that he was actually there as an urban explorer with the intention of recording videos for his YouTube channel, according to the Times.
