ANAHEIM (Orange County Register) – A parking toll-booth attendant was robbed Tuesday, the second armed robbery at a Disneyland lot in the past two weeks, authorities said. Two unidentified men drove up in a dark-colored Porsche at about 3:50 p.m. Tuesday. One man got out of the car, walked up to the toll booth and demanded all the money in the cash box. A weapon was seen by the attendant but never pointed. The man was given the money, returned to the vehicle and drove off very quickly, said Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez. On Sept. 19, a man in a light-colored vehicle, possibly a Toyota Camry, drove up to a different toll booth at about 2:30 p.m. The man got out of the car, asked for the money, flashed a gun, received the money and drove off, Martinez said. Officials say the investigation is continuing; no arrests have been made. ------- That is sad that people have to do something like that. ; I wonder if that happens a lot? ; I would like to think not.
It's sad that someone would feel the need to do something like that. ; It's downright stupid that someone who can afford to drive a porche would stoop to doing it. ; *grumble* ; Makes me wonder if the 'rich kids' even had a weapon, or whether they just had a Toys 'r' us special (since you can still get plastic handgun replicas) tucked into the waistband. But, if you know a company has a policy of "safety before heroism" in robbery situations and you know it's not somewhere that's likely to have ultra-high security (not like the front gate ticket offices, or a bank, for example), then it's almost like they have a sign on the booth that says "free money". ; The earlier robbery probably gave them the idea. I wonder how long before they automate the whole parking thing (exact change, credit card, or those little tickets that you feed into a machine before returning to your car and then pay at the machine and use the paid ticket to exit)?
I also wonder how may jobs would be lost if that were to happen. It is a great idea, but still all those people who have done that job for years probably. ; I guess that would just be life and technology.
Yeah... and Disney's one of the warm and cuddly corporations that does have people on staff who've worked there for eons... it's a tough call. ; It would certainly be safer if they automated it (less opportunity for staff to get held-up, beaten, otherwise threatened for the sake of the daily parking receipts), but would lead to loss of jobs. ; Of course, that said, they'd have to increase (or introduce... I've never parked there, so I have no idea how it all works) parking lot shuttle service, and probably have people on staff to help folks having difficulty with the payment machines and exit procedures (heck, some of the lots here actually have people at the exits after major events to take your paid ticket and put it in the reader to grant you the ability to leave... it saves time with all the people who don't pull up close enough and then have to put the car in park, struggle out, put the ticket in the machine and then trip over themselves trying to get back into the car and belted in with the car in gear before the gate closes )... it's a tough call.
