Man Accused of Stealing Buzzy's Clothing from Disney World Arrested

justintheharris

Well-Known Member
Sorry to butt in on a WDWMagic thread again, but I saw my site was mentioned and didn't want to let questions go unanswered. Hi, I'm John Gregory, owner and operator of Orlando Rising.

You should be commended about being careful about your news sources. One of the reasons I started writing about Orlando parks is what I see as lax journalistic standards with other Disney blogs (not WDWMagic), as well as how often mainstream sources get some details wrong about Disney and Universal because they're just not familiar with the parks. My goal was to bridge that gap: apply more rigorous journalistic standards to reporting about Orlando theme parks and not insult the diehard fans who know a lot about these places.

Orlando Rising has been around as a general local news site since late 2015. I began writing for it a year ago, and earlier this year, we began focusing entirely on theme park coverage. Hopefully you'll hear more from us in the future. As for me, I'm not a newcomer to journalism in general; I've covered everything from state legislatures to health care to two Stanley Cup Finals over the 8 years of my career. I just happen to love these parks and felt it deserved better coverage than promoting new limited-time cupcakes or unsourced rumors.

I stand by my reporting in this story. I'm not here to say anything negative about Hoot Gibson's comments or guess why other sites or newspapers didn't pursue this angle of the story.

After the Patrick Spikes arrest warrant said that Buzzy "was later stolen from the attraction," separate from the gloves incident, I asked for clarification, specifically asking whether it was just reported stolen due to an internal Disney miscommunication or if it had simply reflected what detectives heard at the time.

Here's a screenshot of the email conversation I had with OCSO on this (I blacked out one employee's direct email address, but left it in the general PR email that's easily accessible on their site). Hopefully being transparent about my reporting process makes you trust Orlando Rising a bit more in the future, but I appreciate it's up to the site to earn that trust with my reporting, not just promises. Thanks and sorry again to WDWMagic for coming on the board to talk about my site.
You had to be a pure buffoon to, again, think Disney removed Buzzy and Disney didn’t tell Disney they were doing it and Disney reported him stolen without consulting Disney.

That was literally what Patrick was claiming in his now removed Youtube video and the claim is as ridiculous as it reads above.
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
You had to be a pure buffoon to, again, think Disney removed Buzzy and Disney didn’t tell Disney they were doing it and Disney reported him stolen without consulting Disney.

That was literally what Patrick was claiming in his now removed Youtube video and the claim is as ridiculous as it reads above.
If you knew what working at WDW was actually like, the proposed scenario isn't all that impossible.
 

GhostlyGoofy

Well-Known Member
If you knew what working at WDW was actually like, the proposed scenario isn't all that impossible.
I don't doubt communication at a company as large as Walt Disney can become a cluster fudge. But why would detectives continue to pursue it and mention in a report written in May and reply to a journalist's email in May that the animatronic was stolen?

if this was an internal error and Buzzy's been sitting in a shop since Dec, I can't imagine the company would let law enforcement think Buzzy was missing for half a year because department heads goofed up. You'd notify police buzzy, your $120,000k Robot had been recovered.
 

glawio

Well-Known Member
Is Hoot Gibson okay? I am really kind of concerned about him. I don't feel like people simply asking for clarification on a confusing case when someone mentions they have the resolution is good reason to...act like that.

Idk why he couldn't just say "hey I saw what I saw and I don't know what's up with the police report" so I'm just wondering if he's doing okay...
 

GhostlyGoofy

Well-Known Member
Is Hoot Gibson okay? I am really kind of concerned about him. I don't feel like people simply asking for clarification on a confusing case when someone mentions they have the resolution is good reason to...act like that.

Idk why he couldn't just say "hey I saw what I saw and I don't know what's up with the police report" so I'm just wondering if he's doing okay...

What If P Spikes is about to name him and he's trying to get Distwitter on his side before it hits the fan?
o_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_O

I am kidding... but those were some feisty tweets.
 

glawio

Well-Known Member
What If P Spikes is about to name him and he's trying to get Distwitter on his side before it hits the fan?
o_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_Oo_O

I am kidding... but those were some feisty tweets.

I was wondering if perhaps Spikes lead the police to the person who had Buzzy as part of a plea deal or to get back at people. But Gibson claims Buzzy has been at Epcot this whole time... 🤷‍♀️

Until we have a pic of Buzzy, like an actual photo that shows he is in the lab or in a warehouse or wherever he is, I'm inclined to go with the actual police documents. Wish Gibson could have described what shape he was in/if he had gotten new clothes etc
 

GlacierGlacier

Well-Known Member
Is Hoot Gibson okay? I am really kind of concerned about him. I don't feel like people simply asking for clarification on a confusing case when someone mentions they have the resolution is good reason to...act like that.

Idk why he couldn't just say "hey I saw what I saw and I don't know what's up with the police report" so I'm just wondering if he's doing okay...
Hoot's always been a bit... Off his rocker on Twitter. He's got some great things to say about historical attractions, and even some insight into new stuff. But he also uses logical fallacies and makes very blunt and sometimes odd statements about the parks and management as a whole.

His is definitely a Twitter account you must be careful when reading 😂
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
I don't doubt communication at a company as large as Walt Disney can become a cluster fudge. But why would detectives continue to pursue it and mention in a report written in May and reply to a journalist's email in May that the animatronic was stolen?

if this was an internal error and Buzzy's been sitting in a shop since Dec, I can't imagine the company would let law enforcement think Buzzy was missing for half a year because department heads goofed up. You'd notify police buzzy, your $120,000k Robot had been recovered.
Even internally there are different entities that legally own different assets. An asset being recovered doesn’t automatically mean you don’t want to know who did what, especially if they might be connected to other thefts.
 

justintheharris

Well-Known Member
If you knew what working at WDW was actually like, the proposed scenario isn't all that impossible.
First, bold of you to assume I don’t know what’s it like to work at Disney. More importantly, the theory’s primary pusher was a guy suspected of stealing him. You expect me to believe that ridiculous story?? Or just that he stole Buzzy. Remember, Occam’s razor. Utilize it.
 
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