An ex-Disneyland worker posted a viral video saying she was nearly human trafficked during a shift at the park.
Gianna Alexis (@giannaalexis8) has reached over 42,000 likes on her TikTok. She added a caption to her video explaining, “Story time on how I was almost traf*icked working at Disneyland.”
To start, Alexis explains how she previously worked at Disneyland in 2017 in the merchandise department. “While you are working merchandise you are usually working in the shops,” she continues, “but lucky me, I had a shop that had a little cart.”
Alexis explains that the “cart” in her section was a candy cart that was placed directly outside of the shop. “When you worked there you worked there by yourself,” she says, “but you were like right near the shop, so you weren’t ever like ‘alone,’ you were just kind of by yourself.”
While on shift one day, Alexis says she got her assignment to stand at the candy cart, when she noticed a girl walking up to her. She says that at the time, she was 22 and had just moved to Anaheim, and the girl who approached her looked around the same age.
Alexis says the customer tried on a few pairs of Mickey ears and was talking to her as if they were peers. “She just kind of gets into conversation with me,” she explains. Alexis says the customer told her she had also recently moved to Anaheim and was going to dental school, and then asked what she was doing working at Disneyland.
Since the two both recently moved to Anaheim, Alexis says she began to tell the customer more about her life as she felt it was “totally fine,” and trusted the customer’s intentions.
She says, “this girl is the most non-threatening-looking girl I’ve ever seen in my life,” and says she asked to exchange numbers.
Her Disneyland shift takes a turn
As soon as Alexis put her number into the customer’s phone, she says the customer “switched up so hard.”
She says the customer “Starts asking me a string of questions, that like, I’m starting to get a little bit uncomfortable.”
Alexis says she was asking her the questions, “Are you married? Do you have children? Do you have a boyfriend? Have you ever been to Saudi Arabia?”
“Literally, just [expletive] like that,” she adds.
Alexis tells viewers that “out of context” these questions could be deemed as normal, until she says another woman wearing a “traditional garb” walked up to the candy cart.
Next she says the original customer looked at the woman and said to her, “Mom…This is Gianna, isn’t she beautiful?”
“The mom does not say a word, takes her phone … and she starts just like taking pictures of me,” Alexis adds. “I was like oh my God, now I’m like concerned and don’t know what to do.”
Alexis mentions that this interaction all happened “extremely quickly,” and after taking the photos the two women said their goodbyes and left.
Quickly after, Alexis says a different woman came up to the candy cart and says she saw the whole interaction take place. “She’s like hey, did you know those people?” Alexis says.
She told her no, and then said the woman suggested calling security because it looked “super alarming.”
“I’m a mom, I think that was weird, and my gut is saying you should call security,” she says the woman explained.
Alexis says at this point, she was worried she would get fired for even exchanging numbers with a customer. Nevertheless, she called her manager and explained what had happened. “I’m just a kid, I was there on a college program,” she adds, “they were probably like, you know we gotta make sure this girl is OK.”
When her manager made it to the cart, Alexis says she suggested they need to call Anaheim Police Department and make a statement. “We have Anaheim PD on Disney grounds,” Alexis adds.
“They call the police, a policeman comes and picks me up at my work location,” she explains, “They’re like, do not leave, do not move from where you are, stay with your manager, we are coming to get you.”
After the police show up to Disney, Alexis says they told her they were trying to identify the subjects, but they needed her to stay directly by their side. “I was like oh, I’m in trouble, like this bad” she says she thought to herself.
Alexis mentions that at this moment, she knew something was wrong but she didn’t suspect that the policemen were investigating trafficking, she assumed the women may be robbers or thiefs.
She says that next the police ask her what information she gave to the women. After explaining that she gave them her phone number, she says the police typed her number into a computer and immediately told her, “You need to call your parents and get your phone number changed right now.”
In the end, Alexis says she waited with Anaheim PD for two hours, changed her number, and was sent a police escort home from work for the next week and a half.
Before ending her video Alexis adds, “Nothing ever happened to me, but I learned a very valuable lesson that day.”
“Really pay attention to who you are giving your information to … and watch where your information is on the internet.”
@giannaalexis8 Story time on how I was almost traf*icked working at Disneyland 🥲 #disneyland #disneyworld #waltdisney #disneycollegeprogram #disneyparks #californiaadventure ♬ original sound – Gianna Alexis
A user told Alexis in the comment section, “I’m so glad Disney and Anaheim PD took care of you and that you are safe. It’s also so sad that our reaction to these things are, “I’m going to get in trouble.” it makes women not want to report.”
“Moms are always saving the day in these types of story times..” another wrote, “thank God that mom stepped in and had you call your manager. This could have ended very differently.”
The Daily Dot reached out to request a comment from Disney, Anaheim PD, and Gianna Alexis via email.
