Most Disney fans would love to take a piece of the park home with them, but some fans take this to an extreme. Instead of buying a souvenir or ride photo, some guests go so far as to steal from the rides themselves, taking mementos as “stolen trophies”.
In the early days of the Disneyland, these kinds of thefts were a huge problem. Younger visitors would reach out from dark ride vehicles and snatch any small pieces of décor within reach, and without much surveillance within the rides, there was little cast members could do to stop them. As Disneyland evolved and dark rides incorporated sensors and monitors, these thefts all but disappeared. But during the 60s and 70s, the peak time for ride theft, two stolen trophies became infamous in the park: Snow White’s apple and the Pleasure Island donkey bow.
The most commonly sought after Disneyland artifact in the park was the poisoned apple, found inside Snow White’s Scary Adventures. At the end of the ride, the Evil Queen/hag opens a door and holds a small red apple she will soon offer to Snow White.
In the 60s and 70s, students attending Grad Night events at the park developed an unfortunate tradition of attempting (and sometimes succeeding) to steal the apple mid-ride, leaving the witch’s hand occasionally empty, or even slightly damaged. To remedy this problem, Imagineers removed the apple altogether during the 1983 Fantasyland refurbishment project, replacing it with a projected image of an apple instead. Today, the witch still proudly displays her apple, but there is no tangible object for anyone to steal.
Another frequently targeted “trophy” was the yellow bow within Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. After vising Pleasure Island, guests see the boys becoming donkeys, one of which still has on his yellow bow tie as he stands against the edge of his cage. Riders would grab at the bow as they passed the cage, and the bow frequently went missing.
In recent years, Imagineers seem to have taken more precautions to protect the looser decorations and objects inside the dark rides. There are now sensors all over Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and watchful cast members monitor riders as they make their way through the dark ride.
In the past, guests caught trying to steal from the rides received little to no punishment, but Disneyland is much stricter today. Guests will be escorted from the park, and often have their tickets or annual passports revoked. Since 1983, Disneyland has constantly refurbished and updates rides to protect their decorations and tiny treasures, so that all park guests can fully appreciate what the park has to offer.
We took both the bow tie from Pinocchio and the Kings scepter from Alice in Wonderland. This was around 2013 and as long as you don’t step out of the car it doesn’t seem to be a problem.
My wife (girlfriend at the time) grabbed both the apple and bow tie without being caught. This would have been 2006. Though we look back at this now and think it was wrong to do so, we still proudly display these treasures in our home.
Just an FYI….the apple was not replaced with a projection in 1983. When I had my annual pass in 1987, it was still very much a physical item.
Really? That’s super interesting – all the articles I’ve found claim it switched in ’83. I’ll do some more research – thanks for sharing your experience!
In the early years of Space Mountain, the glow-in-the-dark stripes on the sides of the ride vehicles were a soft plastic adhesive. My rowdy friends would peel them off during the ride! It really, really pissed me off!
Until they gave them to me.
I hung on to them for decades untill the ‘great storage unit tradgedy’ in which I lost tens of thousands of dollars worth of Disneyland stuff (Anyone priced a 1965 map recently?), and much worse, all the small memories they could often scratch up.
Back in the 70s when I was a teen, my friends and I would jump out of many of the rides and explore their inner workings. The Snow White ride was one of them. The apple was one thing we would grab, but also the picks that the dwarves were holding in the mining scene. I still have one plastic apple which was painted with a dayglo red color that glowed under the blacklight. Much of the paint has flaked off over the years. I also have one of the picks which has a balsa wood handle and a foam pickaxe head which was also painted. They have been in storage for over 40 years. I have only pulled them out a couple times of the years to check them out. The last time I noticed that they had begun to seriously degrade with paint flaking and peeling off. At one time I considered selling them, but eventually gave up on the idea. Now they are just memories of my troubled teenage years.
The bow and the apple were indeed sought after collectibles. At one point, they were both attached with velcro to prevent damage to the ride when guests tried to collect a souvenir.
Totally not related: I’d love to know how much they could be sold for today. 😉
I had a similar thought. But honestly it would be absolutely impossible to prove your plastic apple or bow came from the ride! So I’m not sure how much value they have haha.
They actually have tons of value these days. Auctions like Mike Van Eaton’s in Sherman Oaks has sold tons of actual ride props in recent years and they fetch thousands of dollars.
hello!
what do these “stolen treasures” sell for nowadays?
curiosity : )
That’s an interesting question! I’ve never looked, and since there’s no way to verify authenticity, I doubt there are many for sale. But maybe I’m just not well looped in!
Nowadays if you grabbed something in a ride you’d probably get a lifetime ban from the park lol.
At the very least, you’d get kicked out! Maybe even prosecuted depending on what you stole.
I stole the apple from the Disneyland Snow White ride back in 2005; I was caught though. By the time I got back into my cart all of the lights turned on , the ride stopped, and over a loudspeaker they announced they were experiencing technically difficulties.
A Disneyland employee walked through the whole ride releasing the lap bars on everyone’s carts with the exception of mine and I was escorted out of the park.
Luckily it was only half an hour until they closed and they didn’t ban me; but then again I was still a minor being only 17 years old.
I find this so interesting. On the one hand, my first thought is “that’s terrible, stealing from Disneyland and ruining a ride”. But honestly, if I knew it was a “thing” like at a grad night, I could totally see myself grabbing at it. I would know they’d replace it, and how cool to have a literal piece of Disneyland of my own. But I think it’s for the best that they are so protected now. Any idea why the apple and the bow were the ones most coveted?
I’m with you, Nancy. It would be SO tempting to take a piece of the park home! As far as I know, the bow and the apple were the sought-after items because they were really the only small, easy to grab pieces within reach of the ride vehicles. Nothing is close by on Peter Pan, and Mr. Toad is almost exclusively murals. So out of the main 4, the apple and the bow were kind of the only options. And the apple is already one of Disney’s most famous objects, so it’s no surprise that people wanted to steal it!