A Chuck E Cheese mascot in Florida was arrested mid-shift for allegedly using a stolen credit card, stunning customers who witnessed the unusual scene unfold. Jermel Jones, 41, was in full mouse costume entertaining families at the Tallahassee outlet on Sharer Road on Wednesday evening when police walked in and addressed him by character name. “Chuck E, come with me,” Officer Jarrett Cruz recalled saying in his report. Jones resisted briefly but was eventually handcuffed with “minor physical effort,” police said, according to NBC news. The case began weeks earlier when Michelle Allen visited the restaurant for her child’s birthday party on 28 June. She later found multiple suspicious transactions on her credit card at stores she didn’t recognise. Allen retrieved CCTV footage from one of those stores and spotted the same Chuck E. Cheese employee using her card.
When Officer Cruz returned to the restaurant to investigate, he couldn’t find Jones in the staff area. But the mouse mascot had appeared on the floor and a colleague quietly confirmed Jones was inside the costume. Despite insisting, “I don’t use nobody’s cards but my own,” police said they found Allen’s Visa card in Jones’ pocket, along with a smoke shop receipt tied to a fraudulent charge. He was arrested for larceny, unlawful possession of ID, and fraudulent card use. Jones posted a $6,500 bond and was released from Leon County Jail on Thursday. Chuck E. Cheese said the part-time employee had been dealt with “appropriately.”
