It’s a small world, after all.
While some people have been forced to shelter in place in tiny studio apartments, one man decided to self-isolate on an island in the shut-down Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida.
“Orange County Sheriff’s deputies found Richard McGuire on Disney’s Discovery Island on Thursday,” The Associated Press reported. “He said he’d been there since Monday or Tuesday and had planned to camp there for a week, according to an arrest report.”
The 42-year-old said he didn’t hear numerous deputies searching the private island for him on foot, by boat and by air because he was asleep in a building. He told the deputy he didn’t know it was a restricted area, despite there being numerous “no trespassing” signs.
“Richard stated that he was unaware of that and that it looked like a tropical paradise,” according to the arrest report.
The episode began when a security official for Disney said she saw McGuire using a company boat on Thursday to head to the island, previously called Discovery Island. The island had once been the site of a zoological and conservation park before it was closed to the public in 1999.
Orange County Marine deputies on Bay Lake said they repeatedly used a public address system to tell McGuire he was not allowed to be on the island.
McGuire was arrested and charged with trespassing. He posted bond on Friday and has a scheduled court hearing in June, according to the court clerk’s office, CNN reported.
Walt Disney World and other Disneyland parks have all been closed since the coronavirus outbreak spread across the U.S. Walt Disney World resort shut down and furloughed some 43,000 employees.
Americans are beginning to get restless amid the coronavirus lockdown. In Texas, a park ranger was shoved into as he was telling park goers to adhere to social distancing rules.
The whole thing was caught on tape, with the ranger telling a group of parkgoers in Austin to “maintain six feet of distance from each other. “I got you, man” one parkgoer says, just before another steps up and shoves the ranger into the water. “Oh s***,” exclaims a woman. The pusher, who also fell into the water, is then seen climbing out and runs off.
The shover was identified by police as Brandon Hicks, 25, after he was quickly arrested, the local NBC affiliate reported.
According to the arrested affidavit, police responded to the call around 4:54 p.m. Thursday and were sent to Commons Ford Park. The ranger reported he had been trying to disperse a crowd of people who were unlawfully smoking and drinking in the park, police say.
“Brandon’s intentional and reckless action could have caused the Ranger to strike his head on the dock as he was falling, and render himself unconscious in at least 3 feet of water where he could have drowned to death,” the affidavit said.
The person who took the cell phone video of the incident said they were glad the person got in trouble for pushing the park ranger.
“The park ranger was actually being really sweet and understanding before,” they said.
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