Authorities in central Florida are searching for a man who robbed a restaurant in Walt Disney World’s Disney Springs while dressed in scuba gear.
WFTV9 in Orlando reports the creative thief swam up to the Paddlefish restaurant after hours in the early morning of Monday (September 15), where he stole somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000, according to two pending charges for robbery and grand theft.
Formerly known as Fulton’s Crab House, and before that the Empress Lilly, Paddlefish is a restaurant located inside a stationary replica riverboat that sits in Village Lake at Disney Springs, formerly known as Downtown Disney. The 200-foot-long “boat” is actually a building with a submerged concrete foundation, and was first erected in 1976.
A report from the Orange County Deputies department says that after the man entered the restaurant, he stored his wet suit and scuba gear, entered the manager’s office, where cash from the night before was being counted and put into a safe, and forced two employees into a corner of the room, telling them to get on their knees and close their eyes.
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It’s believed the bandit also tied up the employees, who told investigators that the man, who did not appear to have any weapons on him, left within two minutes, retrieved his scuba gear, and seemingly swam away with the cash.
After freeing themselves the staff members called 911 to report the bizarre crime. Thankfully, neither employee was hurt during the ordeal, and the restaurant opened as normal to the public at noon Monday.
The man was described as about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, wearing tight black clothing, a blue beanie, and no shoes. A CTV image released by the police department shows the suspect appearing to spray paint a security camera prior to the crime.
An immediate search for the thief following the watery robbery yielded no immediate results, and police are still on the lookout for the aquatic criminal mastermind.
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