ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – It’s been five months since a person wearing an apparent wetsuit robbed the Paddlefish restaurant at Disney Springs, but the state says it still can’t release unredacted information because it’s an active criminal investigation.
Early Sept. 15, just after midnight, a man wearing goggles and what appears to be a wetsuit entered the manager’s office at Paddlefish and forced two employees into a corner, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.
One of the employees had been depositing cash into a safe when the robbery took place, the sheriff’s office said in a heavily-redacted incident report.
The man left after taking some cash, the report states.
“We were just robbed (...) He was fully masked,” one of the employees said during a 911 call. “(He had) some sort of spray and he put trash bags over us and shoved us to the ground.”
[LISTEN: 911 call released in Paddlefish robbery]
Though the amount stolen was not immediately known, the potential charge of third-degree grand theft indicates it could have been $10,000 to $20,000. No one was injured, the report states.
An alleged witness who wished to remain anonymous told News 6 that they then saw the man escape by swimming across the water, but deputies — some of whom were observed walking around the restaurant and checking out the water the following day — did not confirm that detail.
[MORE: Paddlefish at Disney Springs robbed after-hours]
News 6 has since put in a public-records request for unredacted reports, photos, and videos. The state still hasn’t fulfilled that request, saying the case remains under “active criminal investigation.”
Paddlefish is the steamboat-shaped seafood restaurant centrally located within the popular, free-to-enter Disney Springs shopping complex.
Levy Restaurants, which Paddlefish is a part of, said in September that it had no comment.