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Universal Studios Employee Stole $1M in Tickets

By Cynthia Hsu, Esq. on May 06, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A Universal Studios ticket theft by Florida woman Carmen Kunstorf shows that a day at theme park is no day in the park.

Kunstorf, 43, a former employee at Universal Studios, allegedly stole 1,862 complimentary tickets to the theme park over an 18-month period.

The tickets were valued at $208,544, but an internal audit calculated the loss as a result of the stolen tickets at $1 million.

Kunstorf's position at the park was to manage the distribution of complimentary park passes to Universal Studios, the Orlando Sentinel reports. The theft was uncovered when park officials became aware that a large number of park attendees were utilizing Kunstorf's complimentary passes to enter the park.

The complimentary passes, according to Universal Studios policy, are not meant to be sold or distributed. The passes are restricted to being given to family or friends. The policies are also clear that employees that are discovered to be violating these rules face dismissal, reports the Sentinel.

Kunstorf stole the tickets on the weekends by going into the ticket box office when no staffers were present, the paper states. After an interview with security staff from the park she confessed her crime.

When asked, Kunstorf said that she was giving out the complimentary tickets to another employee who had previously loaned her money. The other employee's name was not revealed, according to the Sentinel.

While Kunstorf's job position gave her the power to control the distribution of the complimentary tickets, her actions are still considered a theft. Under common law, theft is the taking of property or anything of value, including theme park tickets, with the intent to deprive the owner of the property. As the true owner of the park tickets, Universal Studios was deprived of their property.

Carmen Kunstorf was jailed by police on the Universal Studios ticket theft and released.

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