Disney’s been accused of a lot of things but a ride that supposedly induces post-traumatic stress--which then supposedly leads to a postal employee's theft--is a new one. 43-year-old Brit George Ramplin claims the Thunder Mountain Disneyland ride induced flashbacks to a fatal mini-bus accident from 33 years ago, and that’s why he stole numerous DVDs and games from Royal Mail packages. Britain’s courts are a hell of a lot nicer than the U.S.’
The postal employee claims the Thunder Mountain ride, which he rode at Disney during a family holiday last August, triggered post traumatic stress disorder. He blames Disney’s ride for theft as a postal employee where he stole shipped parcels over three months later. Ramplin says Disneyland Thunder Mountain is not just responsible for causing flashbacks to a 1978 accident where seven children and one teacher dead – and put him in the hospital for multiple operations related to serious head injury – but that the ride also caused him to steal.
For five weeks before Christmas, the postal worker stole packages from his job. Not just any parcels – but packages containing specifically DVDs and computer games from the Harwich delivery office in England.
The courts never got to specifics of whether the Ramplin family supposedly rode the Thunder Mountain roller coaster at Disneyland, Paris or whether he is blaming the Thunder Mountain located at one of the two United States theme parks in California or its Magic Kingdom domain in Florida. The postal worker’s attorney, Katrina Jamieson, had claimed: “Thunder Mountain is a very fast, frightening roller coaster ride. After being on there [the Disneyland ride] Ramplin was terrified and worried there was going to be an accident and all of a sudden memories of the accident when he was ten came flooding back. As to how his attorney planned to tie PST to stealing postal packages is a bit unclear.
After being arrested from Britain’s Royal Mail, Ramplin had supposedly been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and, his lawyer says, has now been receiving therapy. But the attorney claims her client’s mind was (supposedly) clearly very muddled at the time he took the parcels from his job. Apparently his mind was not too “muddled” to keep the postal worker from targeting packages that specifically contained DVDs or expensive games.
Ramplin was fired from Royal Mail over the stolen goods after being what his attorney says was an “exemplary” postman for 22 years – losing his £30,000 a year job and pleading guilty to four offenses of theft he’s accused of in just over one months’ time. That’s the time when there’s actually proof of the alleged postal theft: prosecutors say Royal Mail became suspicious and “posted” test packages to track and watch the employee.
Ramplin admits to stealing 15 parcel packageds -- all recovered from his home. Asked why he was stealing from work, he said: “Just temptation I suppose, just stupid.” “Temptation” doesn’t sound a hell of a lot like “muddled” – or like “post traumatic stress” disorder.
It seems Britain’s court system is easier on criminals than the U.S. -- with theft from the postal service in the States deemed a federal offense, where community service would not be happening. Britain’s judge issued Ramplin just a six-month community service sentence, a daily curfew and required payment of a £350 (approximately US $650) toward Royal Mail’s legal costs toward the case. She cited post traumatic stress disorder as providing some type of explanation “for this completely irrational” behavior, stating: “This is a tragedy for you and your family.”
Apparently it’s less of a tragedy for those 15 people who tried to mail DVDs or games.