An Alabama man led Florida police on a wild manhunt at Disney World’s shuttered Discovery Island.
Bodycam footage from the April 30 search was released, showing more than a dozen Orange County sheriff’s deputies with guns drawn searching for a man, identified as Richard McGuire, 42, who has been charged with trespassing.
The incident began after a trail camera picked him up on the island, which McGuire allegedly used a small motorboat to access, according to Click Orlando. The 11-acre Discovery Island sits at the center of Disney’s Bay Lake, and while it used to be a tourist attraction, it has been closed to the public for more than two decades. At the time, all of Disney World resort was closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, making it easier to slip onto the island in the dead of night.
McGuire even documented his adventure and posted videos of the abandoned island, which is littered with buildings and crumbling facilities overgrown with plants. When the sheriff’s deputies arrived at the island by boat, McGuire was reportedly still there, hiding while documenting the law enforcement officers swarming the outpost.
“Disney world ain’t playing. Disney World ain’t [expletive] playing,” McGuire, who had covered himself with leaves, said in one video as helicopters could be heard buzzing above. “The island is surrounded.”
The sheriff’s deputies themselves seemed mildly amused by the turn of events.
“What is this? What they hatch baby dinosaurs in?” an officer is heard saying in the bodycam footage, an apparent reference to Jurassic Park, as a decrepit building is scanned.
“Best game of hide-and-seek ever,” one of the sheriff’s deputies said near the end of the unsuccessful search. Another chimed in, “Dude, this is sketchy.”
Later that evening, Disney officials called law enforcement back when they noticed a boat leaving the island for the mainland. When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they arrested McGuire and charged him with trespassing.
“I’m just wore out. Flat wore out,” McGuire told one of the arresting officers, noting that he had planned to stay for about a week on the “tropical paradise.”
McGuire faces up to a year in jail and since being bailed out has continued to post YouTube videos about his soiree onto Discovery Island. In one video, he even claimed that it wasn’t his first outing and provided some advice to would-be trespassers.
“You guys, if you all ever do this, be respectful to the next people who are explorers,” McGuire tells the camera. “If you have a fire, make sure you put it out the next day. I’ve been doing this since 2004, and I’ve never caught anything on fire.”
