ORANGE COUNTY, Fla.,None — GPS ankle monitors are not a part of the Disney costume.
An Orange County woman called WFTV after she believes she was fired from Disney for wearing a court-ordered GPS device. She had to have the device because of problems that stemmed from a traffic stop.
After 58-year-old Jan Vanliew Brewster's husband died and she lost their retirement money in the stock market, she went to work at Disney's Wilderness Lodge. But, she says, her GPS ankle monitor cost her her job.
"Were you trying to hide this from anybody?" WFTV reporter Eric Rasmussen said.
"Nobody. Nobody," she said.
Nearly three months into her job at Disney, Vanliew Brewster was ordered to wear the monitor when she couldn't afford classes, stemming from a two-year-old wreckless driving conviction and violated probation.
"She would've never noticed it if I didn't have to tell her about it," she said.
But Vanliew Brewster says she notified her supervisor anyway and was fired as soon as her shift was over.
Even though she had it out of sight, she says Disney terminated her for violation of costume.
"Some people may say ‘it's your own fault, girl,' but I'm 58 years old. I have been a law-abiding citizen my whole life, it seems a bit harsh," she said.
Vanliew Brewster says she now has less than 90 days until she gets her ankle monitor removed and she's already written letters to Disney, begging for her job back.
Labor experts say Florida law gives employers to the right to fire employees for almost anything, but Vanliew Brewster says she's already suffered enough.
"I screwed up two years ago, when is it going to end?" she asked.
WFTV received a statement from Disney: "This was not simply about costuming. In general, many factors are considered in the overall assessment of a cast member's probationary period. To say anything more about the specific case would be inappropriate since this is a personnel matter."
WFTV
