Draper's Thriller Park opens despite laptop theft setback

Thriller Park in Draper opened for its Halloween season Saturday, Sept. 26, after a laptop theft in late August wiped out thousands of hours of work on the park's animatronic shows.

A thief caught on security camera broke into an employee's truck parked outside the park near the end of August and took a laptop belonging to the park's audio engineer, according to park staff. Fox 13 first reported the laptop contained audio files used in the park's animatronic shows. No police report has been made public, and the laptop has not been recovered.

Owner Alex Kuwahara and his crew had no choice but to rebuild everything from scratch.

"One day, we worked 21 hours. Just had to get straight back up and start at 11 p.m. the next day, so just a couple of hours of sleep," Kuwahara told Fox 13.

The audio engineer had been working in a studio since February preparing content for the season. With that person now stuck recreating stolen files, the rest of the setup crew lost help they were counting on. Manager Tyler Smith said the park had to hire more people and shift from 12-hour days to 18-hour days to cover the gap.

Kuwahara himself sat in the audio booth to help rebuild sounds for the animatronics, pulling him away from other setup work across the property.

As of opening day, not all of the stolen content had been fully recreated. Staff said they have enough to finish out the 2026 season, which runs through Saturday, Oct. 31.

What visitors will find

Thriller Park is part of Kuwahara's Pumpkin Patch & Thriller Park, located at 12153 S 700 W in Draper. Beyond the animatronic shows, the property features a pumpkin patch, two walk-through spook alleys, a corn maze, live music, food trucks, bounce houses, a foam pit and face painting, according to Utah's Adventure Family.

Tickets are available online at the park's ticketing site or at the door. The park is open daily through Halloween.