Orlando – Florida police arrested a man who was in quarantine on a Disney World island long closed to the public and who later told authorities that the place seemed to him to be a “tropical paradise.”
Orange County Police Department officers found Richard McGuire on Disney-owned Discovery Island Thursday. The subject stated that he had been in place since Monday or Tuesday and had planned to camp there for a week, according to the arrest report.
The 42-year-old man said he had not heard that several agents were looking for him on foot, by boat and by air on the private island, since he slept in a building. The subject told an agent that he did not know that the place was a reserved area, despite the numerous “no access” signs.
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“Richard stated that he did not realize that and that the place seemed to him like a tropical paradise,” according to the arrest report.
Officers from the Orange County Marine Police Unit in Bay Lake used the public speaker system to alert McGuire that he was not allowed to be on the property, but the man remained on the island, the report said.
A Disney security representative said she saw McGuire using a company boat on Thursday, noting that the area has various “no access” signs and two closed doors. The representative demanded that the agency file charges.
McGuire was arrested on a trespassing charge and transferred without incident to a prison. At the moment it is unknown if the man has an attorney authorized to make statements.
Discovery Island, formerly called Treasure Island, had been a zoo before closing its doors in 1999.
