Disneyland Accused Of Doing 'Too Much' After Escorting A Mom Out Of The Park In Handcuffs For Lying About Her Kids' Ages To Get Them In For Free
It certainly wasn't the happiest place on Earth for the family that day.
Focus Pix | Shutterstock Since it is dubbed as the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland is certainly not somewhere you would expect to be escorted out in handcuffs as your children cry and beg for help.
However, that was exactly what one Disneyland guest experienced after lying about her children’s ages to get into the park for free.
While some people believed that Disneyland security did not handle the situation appropriately, this was not the woman’s first offense in a Disney park.
A mom was escorted out of Disneyland in handcuffs after lying about her children’s ages to get them free admission.
Footage of the incident captured on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, has been circulating on social media.
While it was initially unclear what happened to lead to the mom’s arrest, police officers were filmed escorting her out of the park in handcuffs while her two daughters clung to her side and cried to bystanders for help.
“You’re [expletive] hurting me!” the woman could be heard yelling at officers as they walked her toward the exit, with one of them even pushing her daughters’ stroller behind them.
When the video first surfaced, viewers speculated about what could have happened — from her getting too drunk to even hopping a fence to get into the park. However, Anaheim police later confirmed that the woman, identified as 26-year-old Jessenia Diaz, had lied about her children’s ages to get them into the park for free.
Disneyland Park offers free admission to guests under 3 years old when accompanied by a paying adult. Valid reservations and ticket purchases are required for guests 3 and older to get into the park.
Ticket prices depend on the type of ticket purchased, the number of days guests are visiting the park, and their ages. They usually range from $104 to $194 per day.
While the mom clearly violated park rules by claiming her children were under 3 to get them in for free, some people thought that Disneyland security and Anaheim police took it too far.
“The way things were handled makes me feel a little bit disappointed in Disney,” one TikTok user responded to the viral footage.
“There's police officers pushing the stroller behind the mom, and the kids are clinging onto their mother screaming help… I just feel like it could have been handled so much better.”
“Those poor sweet angels, and everybody standing there taking videos of these children and they’re screaming for help and the cast member is just walking them out of the park.”
Another viewer, who claimed to work for Disney for three-and-half years, supported the idea that no children under the age of five should even be required to pay for entry.
“Most of them are not tall enough to ride almost anything and you're paying a stupid amount of money for your kids to basically be able to only go on like 20 rides,” she said in a TikTok video.
“I understand that the company needs to make money, but did they really need to arrest this lady? I'm guessing she paid for the ticket and then just didn't pay for her kids.”
Some critics argued that Disney is ultimately to blame because the cost of tickets limits park access to low-income families.
Others argued that Disney already makes billions of dollars each year, and didn't need to go to such lengths because of one guest who snuck in her kids for free.
“Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation worth over $172 billion today. Mind you, the entrance fee to get into the park is somewhere around a hundred-something dollars,” another viewer addressed in a video.
“I get it. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, not supporting doing things that you shouldn't be doing, but let's just call it what it is: she doesn't have the means to afford to get into this park, and she wants to show her kids a good time.”
It seems as if the once family-friendly theme park is now driving away most families with young kids with its outrageous prices.
A survey conducted by the financial firm LendingTree, consisting of over 2,000 participants, found that 45% of families with children under 18 who have visited the Disney theme parks have gone into debt as a result of the trip.
Other families cannot even afford to go at all.
And after the way their mother was treated, it is unlikely that Diaz’s little girls will want to visit again even if they could.
“Just imagine the impact it has on these little girls. They are seen crying, leaving the video while their mom is in handcuffs. That is something that will be engraved in them for the rest of their lives,” the woman added.
“I would never want to do that to another mother, but let alone a corporation like Disney that's so big. Like you could literally have people going into the park for free daily regularly, and it would not affect a dollar in your bottom line.”
The Anaheim Police Department believes that their actions and the actions of Disneyland security were appropriate, given the situation.
According to Anaheim police Sgt. Matt Sutter, Diaz has repeatedly snuck her children into Disneyland, and the day of her arrest was the fourth time in the last two months.
"When security tried to question her about her kids' ages, she just kept walking and didn't stop. They caught up with her later inside the park,” Sutter told Fox News Digital.
When Disneyland security and police approached Diaz and again asked her for confirmation of her children’s ages, they said she became “uncooperative,” adding that if she had behaved differently, she wouldn't have been arrested.
Sutter defended Disneyland, claiming that park officials did the best they could to keep the situation from escalating.
"What Disney will do, they'll work with you. They'll try to come up with a solution. They want their guests to stay in the park and enjoy their day. But she wasn't having any of that,” he said.
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Overall, it is a complex and saddening situation for all involved, especially for Diaz’s little girls.
While we may never know why she desperately wanted to save money on Disneyland tickets, one thing is certain, and that is for her and her daughters: it was certainly not the happiest place on Earth, at least not on that particular day.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.