Illinois Grandparents Accidentally Buy $10K in Disney Plus Gift Cards from Sam's. Disney Allows Them to Exchange the Cards for Theme Park

A woman who wanted to take her family to Disney World had to put off her trip due to the pandemic, so the grandparents purchased $10K of Disney Plus gift cards, thinking they were for the theme park. This is the update to the story.

Disney World Florida

A family from Normal, Illinois made a blunder when the grandparents thought they were "being smart" by buying $10,000 worth of Disney plus gift cards ahead of time thinking they were good to fund a trip to Disney World.

It wasn't until the grandparents were trying to pay for the trip to the theme park online that they realized their big mistake.

41-year-old Andie Coston shared about the mishap on TikTok recently and her original video was viewed over 4 million times, giving her temporary viral video fame.

In the text overlay in the original video, it read:

"To save some money, my parents bought 10k of Disney gift cards to purchase our tickets and restaurant reservations." -Andie Coston, Disney park enthusiast

After it happened, she said:

"We were all befuddled and baffled at what had happened...The absurdity was funny but then the realization that we may not actually make it to Disney was sad ... This has always been the one big trip that I can take my kids on." -Andie Coston, Disney park enthusiast

Coston Family Realizes They Have $10K in Disney Plus Gift Cards

USA Today reported that Andie Coston's parents thought they had bought $10K in gift cards to the magical theme park in Florida from Sam's Club. When the family discovered they had accidentally purchased gift cards for the Disney Plus streaming service, they first reached out to Sam's Club and also to Disney.

Disney plus gift cards

Here's the update to her story.

Update: Disney Works to Make it Right

Andy Coston posted an update on her situation to TikTok on Thursday.

Andie Coston

In the video, she said:

"Good morning everybody. I just wanted to provide um some updates, some clarifications, uh number one...yes, Disney has contacted us. They contacted my parents Monday evening and they have been working on rectifying the situation ever since. It is a slow-going process.

My parents are having to take photos of every single one of the gift cards and email it to this poor guy named Joey in California. Joey, you have my deepest condolences and sympathies, and then Joey has to do his thing and then transfer them onto like regular like Disney Parks gift cards, so they've been working on that slowly cause you can only send so many pictures per email, right?" -Andie Coston, Disney park enthusiast

Sam's Club did reach out to them, but could not refund the cards.

Andie explains in her update video that her parents had scratched off all of the codes on the back of the gift cards, trying to enter them into the Disney Park website, but they didn't accept them at the Disney Park website, and the cards could not be returned to Sam's after the codes had been used.

Andie's video update can be seen on TikTok.

Update: The Coston Family Went to Disney World

The Coston family was still able to take their dream vacation to Disney World and has posted about it on TikTok.

The photo below was posted on Tuesday, 27 December of her family at Disney World.

Coston family

Andie wrote the following message in the description on TikTok, sharing that some of the internet fame was not all positive.

It read:

"When I was a teen, I wanted to be famous so badly. I graduated high school and joked that one day I'd be a cast member on SNL. It was really a pipe dream I never pursued because my skin isn't thick enough to handle the feedback.

This past week has felt like a month. When I woke up and saw my TikTok had hit 500k and then over the next 7 days watched it hit 4 million, I was aghast. I'm not made for fame, but better in my Therapist chair.

I've had to engage my support system and work hard to try to embrace this BANANAS experience while facing online trolling, criticism, hate, and sheer disregard for the value of human worth. So I stayed MOSTLY out of the comments." -Andie Coston, Disney park enthusiast

Thankfully, her family was still able to travel to Disney World and enjoy the theme park.

Thoughts

Now it's time for the reader to share your thoughts on this story.

• Have you ever made a mishap and purchased the wrong kind of gift or gift card for someone?
• How would you feel if you accidentally purchased Disney+ gift cards instead of Disney theme park gift cards?
• Are you surprised that Disney was willing to switch out her Disney Plus gift cards for Disney Parks gift cards?

Sources

Andie Coston on TikTok: @aofthecoast

Goh, Amanda. "Grandparents messed up and bought the family 70 years' worth of Disney+ instead of a trip to the theme park." Business Insider. 25 December 2023.

Robledo, Anthony. "70 years of Disney Plus: Family accidently spends thousands on streaming instead of trip." USA Today. 20 December 2023.

FBI is Investigating Bizarre Case of a Russian Man that Flew from Europe to Los Angeles Without a Passport, Visa or Plane Ticket

A Russian man flew from Europe to Los Angeles without a passport, visa, or plane ticket, and the FBI want to know how he did it.

Airplane leaving airport at sunset; credit: Upal Patel on Unsplash

This is definitely a bizarre case of amnesia.

Russian Man Flew from Europe to Los Angeles Without Passport, Visa, or Plane Ticket

Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava, landed at LAX on Nov. 4, 2023 on a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Copenhagen. He showed up at the customs checkpoint without a passport or visa and was not listed as a passenger on the flight manifest,

What makes this case strange is he claimed to be confused and couldn’t remember getting on the plane or how he got past security and boarded the flight without documents.

Ochigava exhibited strange and unusual behavior during the flight, such as wandering around, changing seats, asking for two meals, and trying to eat the cabin crew’s chocolate.

No, you cannot have the cabin crew's chocolate without asking nicely.

The FBI is Still Investigating this Case

The FBI filed a federal complaint charging Ochigava with being a stowaway on an aircraft. The FBI said the investigation is still ongoing and they are trying to figure out how Ochigava managed to get on the plane without a ticket and bypass security checks. The flight’s crew members conducted head counts for their individual sections before the flight, but those were intended to ensure the plane was balanced for landing and takeoff. It was only after the flight landed that the airline discovered its passenger count was one person above the manifest, which makes this a very strange case.

Ochigava is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles and is expected to be in court later this month. He faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of the stowaway charge. He could also face immigration and deportation issues as he has no legal status in the US. His case has raised security and safety concerns for the airline industry and the authorities.

This is a mystery that might take some time to figure out.

Hopefully the FBI will solve this strange mystery in Los Angeles.

Federal Bureau of Investigation seal

Workers Encounter Rats in the Basement and the Rooftop Skytop Terrace Restaurant at the W Hollywood Hotel

The W Hollywood Hotel should have pest control on speed dial after five cooks, servers and receivers filed a complaint due to the ongoing rodent problem, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

W Hotel; credit: David Starkman

W Hollywood Hotel is Having Rat Issues According to Workers

Unite Here Local 11 represents workers who witnessed "rats and mice running around stored food" at the W Hollywood Hotel located at 6250 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood, CA.

The L.A. Times reported that the workers "discovered bags of flour and rice covered in what appeared to be rat feces, urine, and bite marks." They reported "every rodent encounter to management" with a messaging application.

The rodents have been seen at both the Sky Terrace on the 12th floor of the W Hotel, but mostly "in the storage rooms in the basement" of the W Hotel. This is where workers saw mice and rats "dashing around the stored food," which troubled the employees.

As a result, management set traps to catch the rodents, and asked workers to "clean more thoroughly," but despite efforts, the traps and increased cleaning did not resolve the "rodent infestation."

Unite Here Local 11 union reported the complaint on 16 November 2023 on behalf of five cooks, servers, and receivers who work or have worked there. They attached photos and video footage of live and dead mice and rats and evidence of rodent feces and urine taken between May 3 to October 12, 2023.

The Sky Terrace has remained open despite the rodent complaints.

Mosaic LLC, which operates Sky Terrace released a statement.

It read:

“We take health and safety very seriously and follow standards that meet or exceed health and safety regulations,” a Mosaic representative said in a statement. The spokesperson added that the hospitality group is "ready to assist OSHA or the L.A. County Department of Public Health with any related inquiries.”

Nick Remedio, general manager of the W Hollywood Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard said they work with "a leading pest control company on an ongoing basis and engage[s] them for any specific concerns reported within the building."

The workers said the rodent problem has been "recurring and persistent," and that the inspections did not reflect the "reality of the situation." They said they hope the complaint will prompt the authorities to take more serious action and hold the restaurant operator accountable.

Los Angeles Health Department Shut Down Three Storage Rooms Temporarily in July 2023 After Rodent Problems

Back at the end of July (2023), the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health "shut down there of the storage rooms operated by Mosaic LLC for 48 hours after they found dozens of rodent droppings in the facilities, according to official documents provided by the agency to the L.A. Times and "one of the three storage rooms lacked a public health permit."

Around this time a server at the Sky Terrace restaurant uncovered the credenza on the rooftop of the restaurant and found a glue trap near silverware with two mice stuck on it, one dead and the other alive. Management instructed the server to throw the mice into the trash. That same morning, that same server found another live mouse stuck in a trap along the wall of the restaurant.

However, it was noted that at the same time as the storage room problems, the Sky Terrace had no signs of rodent activity and received an "A" health inspection grade.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health re-inspected on August 2, 2023, and found that "all of the violations had been corrected."

Workers allege that the rodent problem came back after this re-inspection.

One of the chefs asked a receiver to get a bag of flour in the storage room and bring it up to the Sky Terrace kitchen on the 12th floor. When it was delivered, the bag had an obvious tear and contained rodent feces and urine residue. The receiver was disgusted to see the rat droppings and yellow evidence of urine.

The chef asked the receiver to dispose of "half of the flour" and "intended to use the other half."

Only a month after this incident, another server noticed rodents inside the Sky Terrace restaurant.

One line cook said: "Nowhere have I seen rodents in the workplace like that, and the managers knew about the vermin." He stopped eating food from the kitchen after that.

Source:

Carcamo, Cindy. "Food Workers at W Hollywood allege rodent infestation at Sky Terrace restaurant." Los Angeles Times. 4 December 2023.