A Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot has been arrested in Florida after a buyer ratted him out as an alleged thief, police mentioned.
A employee wearing a Chuck E. Cheese gown at one of the crucial kid-friendly pizza chain’s franchises in Tallahassee, Florida, used to be taken into custody Wednesday evening on larceny fees and hauled out of the eating place in handcuffs as kids seemed on, in line with police and pictures of the incident that emerged on social media.
The suspect, 41-year-old Jermel Jarreau Jones, of Tallahassee, used to be dressed head-to-toe in a Chuck E. Cheese gown when police faced him round 7:30 p.m. native time at a Chuck E. Cheese in northwest Tallahassee, in line with an arrest record from the Tallahassee Police Division.
A Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot in Tallahassee, Florida, dressed in gown like one pictured right here, used to be arrested, July 23, 2025, at paintings and charged with stealing a buyer’s debit card, in line with a police record. (Getty Photographs)
Getty Photographs
“I grabbed his proper arm whilst giving the verbal instruction, ‘Chuck E, include me Chuck E,” Tallahassee police Officer Jarrett Cruz wrote within the record.
Cruz alleged that the person within the mascot gown to begin with resisted arrest.
“Jones instantly began tensing up, locking either one of his fingers ahead in entrance of his chest and tried to drag clear of my grip on his proper arm,” the officer wrote within the record. “I gave the verbal instructions to ‘prevent resisting, you’re being detained.”
Cruz and a back-up officer reportedly requested the masked worker to “no longer make a scene,” in line with the record.
The officials mentioned they “exerted minor bodily effort hanging Jones’ fingers at the back of his again,” in line with the record.
Jones, nonetheless in complete mouse garb, used to be positioned in double-locked handcuffs and escorted out of the eating place to a marked patrol car, the place police got rid of his oversize Chuck E. Cheese head and allegedly present in his pants pocket a debit card that used to be reported stolen from a buyer all the way through a June 28 kid’s celebration on the eating place, in line with the record.
A Chuck E. Cheese’s mascot in Tallahassee, Florida, dressed in gown like one pictured right here, used to be arrested, July 23, 2025, at paintings and charged with stealing a buyer’s debit card, in line with a police record.
Getty Photographs
Jones used to be arrested on prison fees of larceny of a debit card, ownership of someone else’s id with out consent and for allegedly the use of the stolen debit card six occasions.
Police alleged that Jones racked up fees at the stolen debit card, together with buying pieces at a smoke store, a meat marketplace and a Whataburger.
Jones may no longer be reached for remark. He denied stealing the cardboard when wondered by way of police and claimed the cardboard used to be in his pocket as a result of he had simply discovered it and used to be about to show it in to misplaced and located, in line with the police record.
“We’re acutely aware of an incident involving a part-time worker arrested at our Tallahassee location on Wednesday, July 23. We’ve got taken the fitting motion regarding the topic worker. The police have no longer reached out to us about this; please touch the native Tallahassee police division for any questions,” a Chuck E. Cheese’s corporate spokesperson mentioned in a remark to ABC Information.
The sufferer of the debit card robbery reportedly did her personal detective paintings to spot the perpetrator and helped police set a lure for him, in line with the record.
The sufferer advised police that once she started noticing the atypical fees on her card, she went to a meat marketplace the place the cardboard used to be used and procure safety video pictures that captured the individual the use of it.
“She instantly known the suspect as an worker of Chuck E. Cheese,” in line with the police record.
The sufferer contacted police and met them on the Chuck E. Cheese’s eating place.
An officer entered the eating place, showed Jones used to be there and famous that the suspect, “gazed at me with extensive eyes and squared his shoulders in a tensed method,” in line with the police record.
The officer in short left the eating place to inform the sufferer that Jones used to be operating there, and the sufferer advised the officer she wanted to press fees.
Cruz and some other officer went again into the eating place and wondered a feminine worker about Jones whereabouts within the trade.
“I requested the worker the place the gentleman used to be that used to be prior to now on the entrance gate put up, and if he used to be the only within the mouse swimsuit,” in line with the record. “She shook her head up and down indicating sure.”
