Bill Kitchen, founder of U.S. Thrills of Windermere, Florida, has given millions of people the thrills of their lives with his amusement rides, but two weeks ago he had his own surprise when three men dressed as Ninjas robbed Kitchen and his wife at their mansion.

Last week the robbers might have been caught as the men were captured robbing the estate of former ‘N SYNC member Joey Fatone. The incident will probably be just a small bump in Kitchen’s life of activities.

The booming Florida amusement industry attracted many engineers and creators to Central Florida, but few as successful as Bill Kitchen. Just three years after debuting his Sky Coaster, an alternative to the bungee boom, it became the world’s best selling new park ride.

His SkyCenture was the first virtual skydiving simulator, now popular in 35 American parks. His Unicoaster was a wild circular roller coaster that fit very nicely into urban or indoor spots like the Mall of America. Over 350 of his rides dot amusement parks.

Presently he is completing work on a unique SkyView Ferris wheel. And Bill Kitchen has lots of tall dreams for his home town of Orlando.

One he proposed was to build a 500-foot coaster near bustling International Drive near Walt Disney World. It would be the world’s tallest coaster. Even if that project doesn’t develop, his firm has a bunch of other plans.

There is unlikely nothing that will slow Bill Kitchen from innovating the thrill ride business across America – certainly not a gang of ninjas.