Formed Disney World Employee Sentenced to Prison After Tampering With Menus

Back in October 2024, a man named Michael Scheuer of Winter Garden, Florida was arrested after an FBI investigation found he had tampered with restaurant menus in Disney World.

Scheuer hacked into the Disney World program that managed these menus and changed the ingredient list on many of them, an act that now has him sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of nearly $700,000.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Scheuer pled guilty in January to “one count of computer fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft as part of his deal with prosecutors.” He must also give up the computer he used to commit the crimes and pay $687,776 in restitution to victims.

How did he change these menus? Well, he hacked into the menu system to “falsely show certain food items didn’t contain peanuts and other allergens,” which could be extremely dangerous and even lethal for many. He was a menu production manager for Disney, but was let go in June 2024 due to misconduct. Disney no longer uses the Menu Creator software he hacked.

Thankfully, it’s believed that all altered menus were found before being shipped to restaurants, so no one has had a complication due to his crime. Scheuer specifically admitted to breaching the company’s software many times from July to September 2024, and “added notations to certain menu items falsely indicating they were safe for people with specific allergies such as to peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish and milk.”

He also “changed wine regions on wine menus to areas that had recently suffered mass shootings, embedded or added a swastika to at least one menu and changed menu QR codes to direct patrons to a website that urged boycotting Israeli companies and those with significant activities there.” Additionally, he blocked 14 Disney employees from being able to access their company accounts.

The night before he was arrested, Scheuer drove to the residence of one of the targeted employees, gave a thumbs up to their Ring doorbell camera before promptly leaving. The affected employee then left their residence and was put up into a hotel by Disney for their safety.