Former Disney worker sentenced to 3 years for hacking into park menus, changing allergen information

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.”