A disgruntled former Disney employee was sentenced to three years in prison for hacking into a menu-creating system used by the park’s restaurants to falsely say foods were safe from certain « allergies, when they were not, » Florida federal prosecutors said Thursday.
Michael Scheuer, a 40-year-old Winter Garden resident, pleaded guilty earlier in January to several computer-related crimes, authorities said.
After a contentious termination in June 2024 from his job as menu production manager at Walt Disney World, prosecutors say Scheuer accessed the company’s internal menu-building system and modified food listings.
« These intrusions included manipulating allergen information in restaurant menus to indicate that food items were safe for customers with certain allergies, when they were not, » federal prosecutors said in a Thursday statement. « Scheuer also altered menu information related to wine regions to reflect locations of recent mass shootings. »
The alterations were detected before they reached customers’ hands.
The government argued that Scheuer should be sentenced to 70 months for his crimes. Defense attorney David Haas said in a statement to NBC News that Scheuer is grateful for the 36-month term.
Scheuer will receive credit for the six months he has already spent in jail and hopes to be released after serving 85% of his total sentence, according to his attorney.
« He is very remorseful and apologized to the victims during the hearing, » Haas said in a statement. « He is eager to get back home to his wife and 3 young daughters. He was the sole earner in the family as his wife has a number of medical issues and homeschools their children so he will look for work upon his release. »
