Florida man arrested for camping on abandoned Disney's Discovery Island

The Disney-owned island currently sits abandoned, with no relation to the coronavirus outbreak or the lockdown procedures that followed.

By ZACHARY KEYSER
Walt Disney World's Discovery Island (photo credit: FLICKR)
Walt Disney World's Discovery Island
(photo credit: FLICKR)
Florida man Richard McGuire, 42 was found trespassing on the Walt Disney World's Discovery Island, according to the local sheriff's department.
McGuire, who spent the previous two days before his arrest camping on the island, noted that he was unaware that the property was closed to the public, adding he planned on staying in the "tropical paradise" for another week.
Following a report of a sighting, deputies searched by land, air and sea before finally encountering McGuire sleeping in one of the abandoned buildings. He was arrested and charged with trespassing on private property, and was notified to stay away from all other Walt Disney-owned properties under penalty of law.
The Disney-owned island currently sits abandoned, with no relation to the coronavirus outbreak or the lockdown procedures that followed. The island, located in Bay Lake, Florida and famous for its diverse population of animals and birds, closed its doors in 1999. Disney originally named the park Treasure Island, and later renamed it to Discovery Island.
Disney's four main theme parks in Orlando are currently closed to the public, following the coronavirus lockdown restrictions set on all public parks and attractions around the United States.
A financial analyst made headlines last week when he predicted that Disney World, Disneyland and the company's overseas properties won't be able to reopen until January 2021.
John Hodulik, the managing director of investment research at global financial firm UBS, estimated that health and economic concerns would keep the parks closed through 2020, in his report titled "The Eye of the Storm."
"We believe parks' profitability will be impaired for a longer period of time given the lingering effects of the outbreak and now assume an opening date of Jan. 1 as our base case," Hodulik wrote. "That said, the economic recession plus the need for social distancing, new health precautions, the lack of travel and crowd aversion are likely to make this business less profitable until there is a widely available vaccine."
Disney, which is preparing its quarterly report for publication in early May, has not commented publicly on Hodulik's report and did not respond to USA Today's inquiry. In its statement about the US parks' status in late March, the company said Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Anaheim, California, would both remain "closed until further notice."
Jayme Deerwester/TNS contributed to this report.


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