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Visitors to Disney Springs in Florida are used to seeing magic shows, themed attractions, and plenty of entertainment. But no one expected a real-life crime thriller to unfold when a man in scuba gear robbed a popular restaurant and then swam away into the night.
The bizarre robbery happened just after midnight at Paddlefish, a well-known restaurant sitting on the water at Disney Springs. According to Orange County deputies, a man in a full wetsuit and scuba gear emerged from a nearby pond, broke into the manager’s office, and forced two employees to the corner while cash was being counted into a safe.
“He told us to close our eyes and stay quiet,” one of the shaken employees told investigators. “It felt like a bad dream or like I was trapped in some kind of movie scene.”
The suspect tied the employees up and spray-painted a security camera before fleeing. But he didn’t take off in a getaway car. Instead, he vanished the same way he arrived — slipping back into the water and swimming off under the cover of darkness.
What He Took and Who He Was
Authorities say the scuba-clad thief escaped with somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 in cash. Witnesses described him as about 5’10” with a slim build, wearing tight clothing under the wetsuit and a blue beanie. No weapons were shown, and fortunately, the employees were not physically harmed.
Still, the psychological toll has been real. “We were terrified,” said one worker. “You don’t expect a scuba diver to walk into your job at midnight and rob the place.”
Social Media Explodes
As news of the “Disney Springs Scuba Robber” spread, the internet wasted no time turning the story viral. Memes compared the thief to a “low-budget James Bond villain,” while others joked he must have been training at a theme park lagoon. But many commenters focused on the frightening reality for the employees, who were left shaken after the bizarre encounter.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office is urging anyone with information to come forward. For now, the scuba robber remains at large, and Disney Springs visitors are left with a story that feels stranger than fiction.
