Law&Crime Sidebar - Disney Employee Took 500+ Videos Underneath Guests’ Skirts: Cops

Episode Date: August 2, 2025

A Disney World employee allegedly spent years secretly recording videos under the dresses of women and girls, including a 14-year-old guest. Now, the family of that alleged victim is suing Disney, claiming the company failed to protect parkgoers from Jorge Diaz Vega’s disturbing behavior. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the shocking allegations detailed in interviews with witnesses, victims, and the suspect himself.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. When he dropped his menu, he pulled out his phone and he bent down and with his left hand he reached in front of him to grab the menu. And with his right hand he reached under her skirt with his phone camera up. Disney is the target of a lawsuit after an employee at Star Wars Galaxy Edge was allegedly caught red-handed taking photos underneath women in girls' dresses and skirts. As the former shop worker's case

makes its way through the criminal court system, the family of one of his underage alleged victims thinks Disney needs to pay up. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. George Diaz Vega was 26 years old when deputies arrested him at his job at Disney World in Orlando, Florida in 2023. And as shocking as that headline is, it is almost as shocking as the allegations. Because Vega had been spotted allegedly using his cell phone to take videos under guests'

skirts and dresses. And it apparently happened two days in a row. So Orange County deputies got involved and they started an investigation. And we were able to obtain body camera video of deputies interacting with Vega, as well as audio of interviews that law enforcement did with them and others and I'm gonna take you through a timeline of what happened and how the investigation played out and how that could impact the civil lawsuit that was filed by an alleged victim's family. So George Diaz Vega worked at a Star Wars themed store inside the Galaxy's Edge part of Disney's Hollywood

Studios Park. Doc Andar's Den of Antiquities. It sells things like lightsabers and stuffed animals that look like characters from the franchise, but at least one of Vega's fellow employees noticed that Vega was using his position to target women and teenagers and violate their privacy. That's the allegation. Now, before we dive into this, I do want to note much of the footage that has been released to us by police is audio only or it's been redacted, and this is done to protect the privacy of the alleged victims, the witnesses, other employees who aren't involved in the investigation.

Just want to make that clear. So we go to March 30th, 2023. In Orange County deputies, they respond to Hollywood studios to talk to a woman who's at the park with her granddaughters and they think that something has gone horribly wrong at what is supposed to be the happiest place on earth. And the woman, named Laureln, is visiting Florida from Michigan, the alleged victim, who's 14 years old, is referred to as A. So according to a police report, Laureln verbally stated her granddaughters, to include A, and her, were walking through the marketplace

of Star Wars Galaxy Edge when they stopped to look at porg stuffed toys. A was approached by a large Hispanic male with dark hair wearing a Star Wars uniform and a green scarf. The male was holding a toy under his armpit. The male suddenly dropped the toy under his armpit and he bent over to pick the toy up while at the same time he used his cell phone to take a picture under A's dress. A told Laureln what had taken place and Laureln notified Disney Security. I know this is quite the story but it's definitely one we wanted to bring to you here on Sidebar

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According to the report, the male suspect was not identified at the time. But then the very next day, March 31st, deputies respond again, this time to speak with the Disney cast member who thinks she spotted some inappropriate behavior. Talk to me. What happened? Dark on Dars shop. Okay. Next to the register. Okay. And the cast member was in front of me directing the line. You are a... I'm a leader, one of the managers.

He was standing directing the line. Right. And he was holding menus of the different lightsabers that we had. Yes. And he dropped one, and it fell directly in front of him. And there was a guest to the right of him that was at the counter looking at the female guest,

looking at the lightsabers. And when he dropped his menu, he pulled out his phone, and he bent down, and with his left hand, he reached in front of him to grab the menu, he pulled out his phone and he bent down and with his left hand he reached in front of him to grab the menu and with his right hand he reached under her skirt with his phone camera up and he was like taking photos of her. How do you know he was taking photos? Well, in my life, I did not see a flash but...

You're clicking or? No, it was very loud in there. It is my assumption. You can go to it, make it easy. Especially because there was no need for him to reach that way to pick up his menu. And it was no need for him to have his phone out either. And there's no phone in that position. You kind of... It wasn't like a work phone or anything.

Right. And I feel like...I don't know if he knows that I saw him, but as soon as he did, I was like, and like a work phone or like, I don't know if he him, but as soon as he di back away and then he tur and then he turned back a that's when I called my p totally got it. Was she w

she was wearing a black d got this report, Disney security teams were able to start looking for the woman that they believe was victimized. So we pulled the transaction from when they bought the lightsabers, they used a chip. So the chip doesn't record their information. Oh no. But we got our undercovers looking for her. We took a picture of the camera of the victim.

Yeah, yeah. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. And we took a picture of the camera of the victim. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. And we took a picture of the camera of the victim. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. We took a picture of the camera of the victim. And so we got our undercovers looking for her. So if we find her, you guys won't talk to her. Oh, got to you.

What on earth would you say to her? I mean, how do you have that conversation? What? How do you approach somebody who doesn't know that they potentially had something done to them? What do you say? I mean, you kind of, unfortunately, you kind of just can't read on them. One Yeah, you weren't aware something happened to you. We need to talk to you about it. One deputy explains to another that law enforcement had been called out the night before, but

that the suspect, Vega, hadn't been ID'd. The mail was not present and arrived upon arrival. So that's when Disney security started pulling video. So when I got here today today they knew who the guy was and then luckily the idiot just did it again he did it again in front of her to a different person but he did it inside instead of outside and then when they pull video for that one the guy said they can see the video of him dropping bending down From today? Yeah

Doing the same thing But can't see him actually stick the phone underneath her They see him drop and then The phone goes down but can't actually physically see him Well, they see him go down But they don't see the phone They can't see if the phone actually video records or pictures Right, so Her lion eyes, that means perfect.

Well, that's what I say, two days back to back. Yeah. Yeah. Within just a few hours, Disney personnel were able to locate the woman in the black dress who had left the park for a bit and reentered a few hours later. And at that point, an employee approached her, whisked her away to an interview room where a deputy explained what was going on. Unknowingly, you were a victim of a crime.

Unknowingly. You didn't know. So it occurred. You bought, and then you left. So what I'm here to fill in the blanks, as you were at the register paying, a certain person came underneath your skirt with a cell phone and took a picture. That's in Florida, that's a crime. Video vororism.

So, I'm here to ask you, do you want to prosecute? Now, the woman decided she did want to prosecute, so she sat down for a quick interview. One of the security officers stopped me and told me that I might have been a witness or interview. something and that I'm not in trouble but they'd like to speak with me and then another officer came in and he told me that somebody was caught taking like a photo under my dress in that shop to let me know that it had happened I didn't I wasn't aware previously that it had happened until he told me, but the store and the time and everything checked out. So once they had a complaining witness,

an eyewitness who's allegedly seen Vega take a video up the woman's skirt, the prior day's report and surveillance footage, deputies were ready to sit down with Vega himself, and they approached him in an employee-only area of the park. How you doing? How's it going? Good. Where's your cell phone, big dog? Over right here.

Alright. Thank you. Alright, just come with us. Appreciate you. You don't have any other phones on you, right? No. Check his pocket. Yeah, I'll patch it. I'll patch it. Let me get down. Alright, just go right here. Just other phones on you, right? Yeah, I'll try to get down. All right, just go to the right right here.

I don't want to be on stage when we go through there. I misunderstood. I don't have a song. Okay, hold on. Just stop. Put your hands on the wall. Thank you. I'm sorry, what's your name?

I'm George. George. I'm sorry, what's your name? George. I'm Sergeant Morris. We're just gonna have you come over to the security office with us. We just have some questions for you, okay? your ID is in there. Pick it up. No, we're good. You're good. We just have a couple of things we want to talk to you about. OK, George. When they sat down with him, investigators learned that Vega, referred to as Diaz in

police reports, had worked at Disney World for years. After waving his Miranda rights, he apparently openly admitted to taking videos under people's clothes without their knowledge. According to the police paperwork, Diaz admitted he has been taking videos up the dresses, skirts of unknown females in the Disney World theme parks for approximately six years. Diaz was currently employed at Disney's Hollywood Studios, specifically at the Star Wars retail store. Diaz estimated he had over 500 videos on his phone.

Diaz takes the videos because it's hard to find them online and they bring him sexual gratification. He even went so far as to show some of the videos to the investigators. Quote, during the interview Diaz willingly showed Detective Junko and I multiple examples of the videos he spoke about in the interview via his phone in the image gallery. I asked Diaz if he minded showing us the videos on his phone and he asked if he could show me. Diaz showed me when he recorded a white female wearing a black dress while she stood in front of the register counter.

I observed multiple other videos in which females were recorded under their dresses skirts and they appeared to not know they were being recorded. The detectives questioned Vega about videos he's allegedly taken of underage girls such as the 14 yearyear-old who'd made the claim the day before. And quote, while reviewing the videos on Diaz's phone, Detective Junko and I observed multiple videos where the females were clearly juveniles. Detective Junko asked Diaz if he had a cutoff age for what female he would record, and he

said he did not know. Now Vega apparently told the investigators that while he had hundreds of videos on his phone, he never shared them with anyone or posted them anywhere online, which by the way would have increased his criminal liability, distribution, things like that. Now during his interview, Vega apparently even wrote an apology letter directly to the people that he reportedly victimized. And it states, to anyone that's reading this, I want to apologize for taking candid shots. Really sorry.

I know what I did was wrong and I do not mean to cause any harm. I have autism and the times I was doing it, I didn't know the consequences. I really hope everyone lives a better life than me and please forgive what I've done. I want to apologize to every one of you. Well after the interview Vega was arrested He was taken to the Arge County jail and he was charged with one count of video voyeurism. All right You don't have anything else on you, right? We took everything off you Okay, the reason I say is I say this to everybody when you get down to the jail if they find something it turns It's gonna be another it's gonna be like a felony

So you don't have anything else on it my belt? Well, no, but like drugs bombs guns. Nothing like hiding. No, okay You want to go ahead and just pop up in there real quick. Watch your head though. Those seats are a little bit better. You can kind of put your feet, your arms into the crevice. Hang on, let me turn the car on for you, okay? We're not leaving yet. We're just waiting for...

Waiting for it to defect us? We're not leaving yet. We're just waiting for, uh... Waiting for the detectives? Well, that and I got the TPW there. Oh. So, I just wanted, I told Sarge, I was like, I'm just going to take them outside and we're going to... Yeah, I heard you. Yeah. As part of the ongoing investigation, deputies in Oakland County, Michigan spoke with the teenage victim who'd been at Disney World on vacation, and she confirmed Vega's alleged MO, saying that he was standing near her when he intentionally dropped a stuffed animal

that he was holding under his arm, and when he bent down to pick it up, he stuck his phone camera-side up under her dress. She was also shown a photo line-up and picked Vega out from the grouping of suspects as the Disney employee she had encountered that day. Now deputies also confiscated Vega's cell phone, which as we mentioned earlier, had hundreds of these upskirt images on it. And detectives found that on March 30th,

Vega had recorded a total of 16 videos. And of those, half were of different females taken under their skirts or dresses. That included the teenage victim. A detective was able to identify her from the clothing that she said she was wearing and said the video was five seconds long. So that now brings us to May of 2023, when the charging affidavit was filed with the state attorney's office. But you gotta get this, okay?

While he was awaiting trial, Vega was apparently caught again, this time at a Publix grocery store in Osceola County. So on June 5th, deputies in that county got a call that someone had been taking photos underneath women's clothes inside the store. And we got a hold of that police report too and found out what the woman involved had to say. Quote, she advised he suddenly passed behind her and knelt to the side with his phone in his hand.

She advised she turn around and spoke to her husband about the unusual circumstances. She advised she felt uncomfortable. Now the woman and her husband decided to follow Vega in the store to see if he was doing this to other people. And the police report says, quote, she observed George walk toward the checkout area where he grabbed a chocolate bar.

She advised after doing so, he stood behind another woman and she watched him take his phone and moved it underneath the woman's dress. She believed he was taking photos, recordings of the woman's undergarment. So the couple cried out to alert the woman to what was happening. Vega reportedly tried to hurry outside. This is according to the victim's husband. Quote, he advised George tried to leave, but he told him he was not allowed to do so. He explained George became scared and asked him to let him leave.

He explained George stated, I've been fired for this before. Please don't call the police. I promise I will delete the pictures. As he was pulling out his phone, the man proceeded to grab the phone from his hand. He advised after doing so, George left the store. He advised as George left, he opened George's phone and observed a video which showed his wife, the dress she was wearing during the incident, her underwear, and later his face at the end of the video.

So Vega was gone by the time deputies got there, but a witness had grabbed his license plate number. And deputies confirmed that surveillance video inside the store matched what the victims and witnesses had described. So law enforcement, they tracked Vega down at his parents' home where he'd been living, took him into custody once again and once again he was charged with video voyeurism. So right now, Vega's criminal cases are working their way through the system. The Orange County case, the one involving Disney World, has had several delays and continuations, but right now Vega is set to have a competency status hearing on September 24th after seeing and speaking with at least

two doctors. During his interview with deputies at Hollywood studios, Vega revealed that he has been tested for autism and is considered borderline and doesn't take any medications for it. So we looked into what Florida's criminal statute has to say about video voyeurism, also called digital voyeurism, and this is what it reads. Person commits the offense of digital voyeurism if that person, for the amusement, entertainment, sexual arousal, gratification, or profit of oneself or another, or on behalf of oneself or another, intentionally uses an imaging device to secretly view, broadcast, or record under or through the clothing being worn by another person without that person's

knowledge and consent for the purpose of viewing the body of or the undergarments worn by that person. And it is a felony in the third degree, which is our understanding, carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, so quite serious. But as we first told you at the top of this episode, it is not just the criminal court that Vega is having to deal with right now. There is a civil lawsuit that has been filed against him too.

That complaint, which is sealed to protect her privacy, was filed by the family of that 14-year-old girl who Vega allegedly recorded in the store on March 31st, 2023. They filed the lawsuit almost exactly two years later, naming not only Vega, but also Disney. According to media outlet WESH in Orlando, the complaint states that after she realized what was going on, the teen victim got physically sick, stating, quote, the victim began hysterically crying and screaming and the child ran into a nearby restroom and

began dry heaving, vomiting vomiting and suffered a panic attack. Now the lawsuit says when it comes to Disney, Disney didn't do enough to protect its guests from Vegas predatory behavior saying there had been previous incidents involving him, but that he'd been allowed to keep his job. Now it's unclear which specific incidents the lawsuit may be referring to but that's the allegation and WESH reports that the lawsuit may be referring to, but that's the allegation. And WESH reports that the lawsuit states, Disney deliberately engaged in outrageous misconduct by creating and allowing an environment to exist where an employee had the means and opportunity to secretly video record the plaintiff's minor grandchild under the child's dress. So the family accuses Disney and Vega of negligence, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

But I will tell you this, for now, a jury trial in civil court, a long way off. Why? Because according to the Orange County Court website, it is currently scheduled for July 5th, 2027. We have an update in this case. We'll keep a careful eye on this case and see where it progresses. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us.

And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.